Benefriends
by nozomi.no.uta
Summary: Namine should've taken a moment that day two years ago to explain to Roxas that it WASN'T okay for two best friends to kiss platonically and frequently, especially if one of the friends was in love with the other. She totally should've.
1. The First Kiss

**Author's Comments: **I have to get this out before my eyes close and I fall asleep! Ahh!

So this is my latest idea for a fanfic-an AU revolving around Roxas and Namine for a change. My OC's still in it, but she plays a smaller role this time around. All you need to know about Imani is explained in the story.

(I'm still working on _The Moirai Zealot_, too. This is just a side-project...sort of.)

Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.**

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**It started two years ago when my best friend witnessed his best guy friend trying to kiss one of my best girl friends.

"I don't get it," Roxas muttered under his breath as we walked home from school. "What's so great about kissing that Axel couldn't wait until _after_ class?"

I snorted and shifted the books I held in my arms with a shake of my head. "I can't believe you. Every guy our age has started filling their minds with sexual fantasies and you haven't even thought about _kissing._"

"Is there a problem with focusing on school and sports more than thinking about sex?"

"Of course there isn't. It's just unusual."

"So you're calling me weird."

We stopped at the corner where the bus picks us up and I sigh. "What don't you understand about Axel wanting to kiss Imani?"

He rolled his bluer-than-blue eyes. "It's not that. Everyone knows Axel's been after Imani since last year."

"Everyone but Imani," I corrected with a smile.

"Right." His melodic voice lilted as he gave a chuckle. "I just don't get the rush—why didn't he wait? He got detention from Marluxia _and_ a slap in the face from Imani."

I shrugged, partially in response to his question and partially because my backpack was slipping off my shoulder. "Maybe he _couldn't_ wait," I mused. "He was overcome with curiosity and devotion for her that he became unable to hold himself back."

"But what's so great about kissing?" He threw his free hand up exasperatedly.

I couldn't reply to him because the bus was rolling to a stop before us. We both flashed our monthly passes and headed to the back for a pair of seats.

Then, I heard Roxas think aloud: "Maybe if I actually kiss someone…"

Roxas and I literally grew up together. Our parents have known each other since college and would always schedule picnics at the park or trips to the beach, bringing Roxas and me along to play with each other. We've become so close that our parents don't care if we close our bedroom doors when we're both alone together. We know everything about each other—every habit, every like and dislike, every secret…except one.

I was very glad Roxas was behind me as we made our way to the seats. He didn't see my face heat up.

"What was that?" I asked as soon as I felt the blush die down.

"I was thinking that I might understand kissing if I actually kissed someone," he stated bluntly, plopping down on the seat next to mine and exhaling tiredly. "What do you think?"

At that moment, I had two thoughts: _That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard_ and _I hope he asks me to be his test subject._

I was going to voice my first thought but he spoke faster. "Can I kiss you, Nam?"

Despite being his best friend for the past fifteen years, his frank speech still stuns me. "What? N-Now?" I hissed, hoping the guy two rows in front of us didn't hear.

"Yeah," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Unless you'd rather I make an appointment."

I should've said no. I should've explained to him right then and there that kissing is an action that occurs between two people who harbor intense feelings for one another. I should've ignored my hurting chest and my fluttering stomach and I should've told him to talk to Axel about kissing.

But who was I to refuse the man of my dreams and the secret love of my life, especially when he was asking me for a kiss? Instead, I swallowed down the quiver in my voice, squared my shoulders, and turned to him to say, "Fine."

I had to clench my fists over my knees to keep from shrinking away from his quickly approaching beautiful face. He zoomed right in, surprisingly, and only hesitated for a moment before lightly pressing his soft lips against mine.

The bumps in the road sort of made the kiss awkward, but I wasn't complaining. Kissing Roxas turned out to be an experience far beyond my imagination, even if it was out of curiosity and not unrequited love.

All too soon, he pulled away, smacking his lips thoughtfully as I tried to steady my breathing and restrain myself from leaning up to kiss him again. "Hmmm…You know what?"

"What?" I breathed.

A grin slowly grew on his face. "I think I liked that."

My heart picked up speed with those words…but I still felt a sad, painful churning in my chest. "Uh…good…" I tugged my cheeks up in a forced grin. "So you understand why Axel…you know?"

"Yeah." He nodded brightly, but soon his brow furrowed. "Did _you_ like that?"

I swear I would've yelled _I loved it_ if common sense hadn't kicked in. "S-Sure…"

Roxas, cute and clueless, declared almost authoritatively, "Then let's do it more often."

I nearly fainted and cracked my head on the window pane.

The next morning, when I tiptoed out my front door to meet up with him, he smiled sleepily, bid me a good morning, and swooped in to plant a chaste kiss on my lips. He kissed me again when we met up for third period and again at lunch and _again _after school on the way home. And the next day, the whole routine would begin all over again. In Roxas' dictionary, "kissing" had apparently come to mean "greeting one's best friend in a particularly affectionate yet platonic way despite normal standards regarding love and societal views."

So for the past two years, Roxas has been kissing me just because. Oh, don't get me wrong—I'm not saying I don't enjoy being kissed by him. It's just that he doesn't seem to realize that _everyone_ notices. The idea of two best friends kissing non-passionately on a regular basis baffles them into calling us "friends with benefits," or "_benefriends_."

Olette, my bio partner, laughed when she first heard of it. "Don't listen to them, Nam," she told me. "The term '_friends with benefits'_ typically refers to friends who engage in sexual activities out of boredom or as stress relief. You and Roxas are cleaner than soap when it comes to anything like that. People just want something to gossip about. Soon they'll probably see your kissing as _normal._"

But that's not what I want. I don't want this casual yet strange kissing between best friends. I want to be able to kiss him because I love him. Because he loves me.

Telling him such a thing might seriously mar our tight friendship. I'm sure we'd still be friends, but he might brand me a manipulator for letting him kiss me so often. He might not trust me. I don't think I could live without his trust—I've never known how.

The day he first kissed me—the day we became _benefriends_—was the day the walls rose and the locks clicked around my heart, trapping me in this game of tug-of-war between my emotions and my levelheadedness.

Or kiss-so-you-won't-have-to-tell. That's a good way to put it.

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**Author's Afterthought: **Please leave a review! Thank you for reading!


	2. The Sad Truth

**Author's Comments:** Wow! So many people read this! Thank you to those who left encouraging reviews--I hope to read more from you! Let me know what you think of this next chapter.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

"How can you do this to yourself?"

My fingers paused as I glanced up at my cousin Kairi. "Do what?" I asked before returning to my class assignment drawing.

"You _know_ what," she sighed. I could hear the slightly desperate tone in her voice that signaled she wanted to snatch my pencil away if only to get me to pay more attention to her. "You're practically _torturing _yourself with this."

I shifted in my seat just to be sure she wouldn't be able to reach my sketchbook. "With what?"

"Don't make me say it out loud. Roxas is sitting at the next table over."

"Kairi, we've been over this a thousand times—"

"And every time you keep denying that anything's wrong with your relationship with him! It's driving me _crazy!_"

Too late did my brain register her manicured hand curling around the corner of my book and yanking it away. I had no choice but to let her—I hate having to erase big stray lines.

"Nam," she hissed, pressing the book to her chest, "_everyone_ in school thinks you two are going out."

"But we're not—"

"_Exactly!_ You two _aren't_ going out but you kiss each other so often without a second thought! What else are people supposed to think?!"

"It doesn't matter what they think," I insisted, tugging back my sketchbook. "This has strengthened our friendship to a level that's deeper than anyone can comprehend."

Her before-dawn-blue eyes droop at the corners and darken with sadness. "But it's killed all hope of your friendship becoming something more."

I couldn't come up with much more than a sigh and a shake of my head to answer. I had to divert away from her gaze and stare down at my unfinished sketch of a young girl painting roses red in a garden.

"Hey guys."

I looked up to the new voice and a relieved smile tugged at my cheeks. "Hi Imani. How was Algebra?"

Imani sagged into her seat across the table and allowed her thick textbook to drop next to her plate of sweet and sour pork. "I hate Axel," she groaned, raking a hand through her short dark hair.

Kairi rolled her eyes, the sadness gone and her smirk knowing. "No you don't."

"What did he do this time?" I asked as I flipped my book shut and slipped my pencil into my bag.

Beneath the exasperation in her black coffee eyes, I glimpsed a flicker of understanding when she looked from me to Kairi and then back to me. Her lips twisted the way they always do when she realizes my cousin was nagging me about Roxas.

So, donning a mask that screamed _Time to distract Kairi so she forgets about bugging Namine by becoming the center of attention with my suffering_, she muttered darkly, "He found out I'm ticklish."

Kairi burst out laughing and clapping her hands while I giggled and shook my head. "Did Lexaeus do anything about it?"

"He couldn't! Axel always stopped whenever he turned around so he never saw anything!" she cried. "I nearly chewed my lip off to keep myself from laughing out loud!"

"At least he's not trying to kiss you anymore," I tried to console her.

"Not in _class_, anyway." She stuffed her face with rice, brooding angrily. "He's such a…ugh."

Two years since that kiss that changed everything, Axel still had no luck with Imani. Though his passes tended to appear shallow or vain, we all—me, Roxas, Kairi, Sora, Riku, Demyx…everyone who's known Axel since middle school—could see he is dead serious about her. We all know the love's mutual, too, since Imani hasn't sent the poor guy to the hospital or moved out of town yet. She's very well capable of doing both, but she cared too much about him to consider either.

I craned my neck around Imani to find Axel sitting next to Roxas. They appeared to be talking about the tickle story, only Axel kept sending devilish glances at Imani's hunched back.

Then, Roxas caught my attention, pointed at Imani, and mouthed, _Is she mad?_

I nodded as discreetly as I could. Imani's observation skills should never be questioned.

Those lips curled into a childish smile that made my heart melt and he turned back to Axel.

"Tonight's your date, right?" Imani suddenly asked.

Kairi's reddish-purple hair fluttered as she nodded excitedly. "We're going to see that new movie!"

Imani's eyes lit up. "Ooh, tell me how it is later! I want to go see it."

"You should join up with me and Sora," she suggested with a glint in her eyes. "Bring Axel and we'll make it a double date!"

Quicker than lightning, Imani's interest vanished and she stared through half-lidded eyes at Kairi. "No."

"But Imani!"

"I've got homework."

"But it's the weekend!"

"There's the fundraiser tomorrow morning for our class formal, too."

"That's not until nine! You can sleep in!"

"If you want a double date, get Namine and Roxas to go with you two."

Heat rushed to my cheeks and I exclaimed, "Hey!"

"Oh, that's right." Imani tapped her chin with one finger to feint thoughtfulness. "Tonight's date night for their parents so they'll be at home watching movies and filling up on sugar—"

"_Hey!_"

"You know I'm right, Nam. You can't deny anything."

The shrill bell rang just then. Imani hurriedly shoveled the rest of her food into her mouth, waving goodbye to me and Kairi on her way out. I couldn't help laughing when I spotted Axel making a beeline for Imani, his fingers poised and ready.

"Later, Nam!" Kairi said while heading off to another part of the school.

As I waved to her, an arm slithered around my shoulders and tugged me closer to my best friend. "So," his lovely voice cooed, "Axel's on Imani's bad side and Imani still doesn't know a thing about Axel's feelings."

"What else is new?" I laughed.

I found myself leaning into his chest a little as he guided me around the corner towards my next class. It's amazing how he still smells nice even when he isn't wearing any cologne. "What're we gonna watch tonight?"

"_Alice in Wonderland_," I immediately answered as I shifted my grip on my sketchbook.

"Really? _Another_ Disney movie?" he sighed.

"We're covering art styles in Disney movies," I insisted. "This is research!"

"Whatever. I'm not sure I have that movie, though."

"I do. We'll watch it at my place."

"Fine."

I wasn't prepared. I almost never am. His body curled around mine as he bent down to kiss me softly for a few seconds. His lips were a little sweet and salty from the sea-salt ice cream he probably ate earlier. Before I could respond back, he pulled away and rushed off down the hall to his locker.

With a deep breath to flush out the heat from my face, I stepped into my next class.

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**Author's Afterthought: **Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!


	3. The Next Level

**Author's Comments: **Thanks for waiting! I had a hard time trying to get this chapter to flow, but I think it turned out okay. Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

A warm hand rested on my shoulder. "You okay, Nam?"

Straightening my back with a little difficulty, I turned to Roxas and flashed a grin. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

His brow creased. "You haven't drawn anything for the past ten minutes."

I blinked the bleary daze from my eyes and studied my incomplete girl-painting-roses picture. A sigh escaped my mouth.

"What're you thinking about?" Roxas asked, propping his head up on his elbow on the back of the couch.

"A bunch of things, I guess. I love you and I know Kairi's right and I don't want to keep kissing you like this and I wish I could be like Axel and openly admit that I really love you, you know?"

…was what I wanted to say if I had to be honest.

"A bunch of things, I guess," I said instead since Roxas wouldn't be satisfied until I gave some sort of answer. "Finals, summer plans, the whole Axel-and-Imani thing…you know."

He nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing as if to peer into my soul. "Yeah, I guess there's a lot going on right now, huh?"

"Yeah." I steeled my resolve to not look away from him out fear that he'd see my feelings.

"Hmm…" An eyebrow perked up. "You know what you need?"

I wasn't sure what to make of that look on his face. He tended to catch me off guard with his thoughts whenever he perked his eyebrow. "What?" I asked slowly, tightening my grip on my idle pencil.

Catch me off guard he did. He slid a little closer, took hold of my sketchbook, pulled it out of my lap, and placed it on the coffee table. "You need a distraction."

"What kind of distraction?" My knuckles nearly turned white.

"Something that'll make you relax a little," he said, prying my fingers off the pencil and setting it next to the sketchbook.

"Like what?"

He didn't answer. He turned to face me, swooped in, and planted a kiss on my lips.

Heat flared in my cheeks. I jumped, staring at his half-closed eyes in shock and pulling away slightly. "W-What…?"

His blue eyes widened and he leapt to the other end of the couch. "Sorry!" he sputtered, waving his hands wildly. "I-I didn't mean to scare you! I was just…"

I couldn't say a word. He'd only ever kissed me out of greeting—a "hello" and "goodbye" kind of a thing. I couldn't understand why he was kissing me _now_.

Roxas seemed to take my stunned silence as an invitation to divulge his thought stream. "It's just…when we kiss…I find myself _relaxing_…" he stammered, diverting his gaze and fiddling with a stray thread sticking out from his sock. "I don't know about you but…kissing feels _nice_ that way…I _relax_ when we kiss and I feel like I can handle _anything_ afterwards…"

A heady sensation filled my brain and my chest. My face felt like it was on fire. He felt _empowered_ after we kissed? Could that mean something?

"I really didn't mean to startle you," he babbled on. "We don't have to kiss like that if you don't want to it was a stupid idea I should've told you before kissing you and—"

"I think…"

He halted, flicking his eyes to mine hesitantly.

"I think it's…_sweet_ that you're concerned for me," I told him with a small smile, "even to the point of kissing me to make me feel better…"

His brow creased. "You make kissing you sound like a really big deal."

The heady hope dissipated and I felt my heart drop. Of _course_ he would think that all types of kissing between best friends were _casual_.

"You know what? Forget it." He sighed and scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I'll try coming up with another way to make you relax…"

My heart plummeted even further and before I knew it, I heard myself blurt, "It could work."

Roxas glanced at me. "What?"

"Kissing," I elaborated while my brain silently panicked. Why did I want to kiss him even when I knew he wasn't doing it to return my feelings?

"But you seemed uncomfortable—"

"I was surprised. That's all. We could give it another try."

Was I getting desperate?

"You sure?" he asked warily.

"There's no harm in trying," I lied.

"You _sure?_"

"Yes." My self-appreciation was in the process of committing suicide, but hey, I'd get to kiss him!

…That was sarcasm.

He studied me for a moment more before inching closer and closer, pinning me to the corner of the couch. His eyes never left mine as he descended lower to meet my mouth. Only after our lips made contact did I close my eyes.

The guilt churning in the pit of my stomach did little to override the sensation of his lips moving gently. He was right; kissing him _was_ relaxing in a sense. I couldn't bring myself to think about anything else besides him.

I exhaled silently, leaning back and wrapping my arms around his neck.

He chuckled, his voice making his lips vibrate. "Feeling better?" he murmured as he pulled away for a moment.

"Mmhm…" I breathed, pulling him a little closer—

Click. Laughter. Footsteps. "We're home!"

Immediately Roxas and I tore away from each other. I snatched my sketchbook and poised my pencil over the paper while Roxas grabbed the remote and began flipping through channels. "H-Hey, guys," he called over his shoulder.

"How was dinner at Lionheart?" I asked without turning around. The heat hadn't faded from my face yet.

"Great!" my dad said. "What movie did you two watch?"

"_Alice in Wonderland_," I said despite not being anything from the movie to help me _draw_ _this picture_.

"The old Disney one?"

"Yeah."

"Is this for your advanced drawing class?" Roxas' mom asked.

"Yup."

"May I see?" My mom peered over my shoulder and gasped. "Oh, it's beautiful!"

Good. A compliment could explain the blush if someone noticed. "It's not done yet."

"It's still beautiful. I'm proud of you, honey!" Her arm wrapped around me from behind and squeezed me in an awkward hug. "You have to show it to me when it's finished, alright?"

"You guys hungry?" Roxas' dad asked from the kitchen. "We brought leftovers."

"Hey! Don't put those in _our_ fridge!" My dad cried. "Take those home!"

"This is too much! We can't eat all this by ourselves."

"You've got Roxas to help you!"

"Stop arguing, you two," Roxas' mom laughed, joining my mom and the dads in the kitchen.

The chatter faded and I glanced sideways to Roxas. His legs were crossed and his head was propped on his elbow on the arm of the couch, his other hand cradling the remote. He locked his blue eyes with mine, a secret smile hidden in the depths.

No, our parents didn't know of our benefriends situation. If our friends nagged us about it, our parents' opinions (and how often they express them) would be ten times more troubling. Kairi's enough of a mom about this, anyway.

"You two want ice cream?"

"Yeah," Roxas replied, only tearing his eyes away when he turned for the kitchen.

I tried to suppress the urge to scribble thick frustrated lines across Alice's dress.

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**Author's Afterthought: **Please leave a review!! Please? Thanks for reading!


	4. The Unlikely Solutions

**Author's Comments: **You know, after reading your reviews (Thank you! They made my day!), I realized that Roxas is either secretly getting his romance fix with Namine or is really, _really_ clueless about the implications of a mouth-to-mouth kiss. Which one is it, you ask? Guess you'll have to keep reading to find out. :)

Hope you enjoy this chapter! Just finished it a few minutes ago.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani and Aden.

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"Good morning!" Imani greeted me cheerily as she leaned against the lockers next to mine.

I quirked an eyebrow. She'd always had a beautiful smile—one that made her eyes squint and her pearly whites shine—but it'd been a while since I last saw her smile _this_ brightly. "Good morning," I answered cautiously.

"How was the movie night last week?" she asked.

A blush heated up my face for a moment. "Good." I shut my locker door and turned the knob a few times to the right. "We watched _Alice in Wonderland_."

"Oh yeah! You're basing your assignment on the art styles from that movie!"

"Mmhm. I finished the assignment yesterday and got started on the next one."

"Good!"

"Yeah."

"Yeah!"

If she kept smiling like that, I'd have to fear for her face muscles becoming frozen in place…not that that would be a _bad_ thing, of course, but Axel might get some misleading messages if he tried making moves. Did she even notice my blush or even think to question anything else happening during the movie night?

"What's going on?" I asked.

She shook her head, the ends of her dark hair whipping her cheeks but doing nothing to deter her smile. "Nothing!"

I thought back to recent conversations with Roxas. He didn't mention anything about Axel getting seriously injured or moving out of town or giving up on Imani, so I assumed the redhead didn't have anything to do with Imani's unusually cheery behavior. "Did something happen at home?" I tried. "Is Aden coming home from college?"

"Nope." She shook her head again. "Not until July."

"Then…" I sighed. I might as well just say it. "I don't mean to be rude and I'm very happy to see you so…happy…but do you mind if I ask why?"

Finally a corner of her mouth dropped just the slightest. Her eyes clouded with hesitation for a split-second. "W-Well…"

"Is it something you don't want Kairi to know?" I asked quickly. "If it is, I won't tell."

"I know you won't," she answered just as quickly, nodding fervently and widening her eyes as if the thought of not being able to trust me was inconceivable, "but…"

I shifted my weight to one leg and patiently watched her face scrunch up with uncertainty and fear.

"Okay," Imani breathed. A determined light shone in her eyes as she said quietly, "I got a job."

I broke into a huge smile. "Really? Congratulations! You've been trying to get one for a while."

"Yeah!" That smile returned. "Thanks!"

"Where will you be working?" I wanted to know.

That smile faded. She tore her gaze away from me and began studying the floor. "Uh…heh…"

So this must have been the heart of her faltering. "Is it embarrassing?"

"N-Not really," she mumbled. "It's just…"

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" I reached out to touch her elbow.

"I know," she sighed. "Alright. I'll just say it. Ask me the question again."

"Where will you be working?" I asked.

Just as she opened her mouth, the bell rang. Both she and I dropped our shoulders. "I'll tell you later," Imani told me, rushing past to get to her homeroom.

My lips twisted into a frown as I walked to my own classroom. Where could she have found a job? Why would she feel hesitant to say?

A hand plopped on top of my head and ruffled my hair. "Morning, Nam," Axel muttered sleepily.

"Morning," I answered, turning to smile up at him as he yawned. "How are you?"

"Do you even have to ask?" he groaned.

I laughed as we entered the room. "Did you talk to Imani at all this weekend?"

"N-n-n-o-o-o. Why?" A thin eyebrow quirked up.

"Roxas says you draw energy off your interactions with her," I explained.

He shook his head and collapsed into his seat next to mine, letting his backpack drop to the ground noisily. "Roxas doesn't know squat."

"He knows that you get jealous when she lets Demyx hug her."

"I don't. They're practically siblings."

"You also get jealous when she and Riku have heart-to-hearts during lunch."

Axel gave me a sideways stare. "I like Imani. I've had that fact memorized for the past two years. Stop bringing up nonexistent jealousy issues and start thinking about how to talk to Roxas about your own feelings."

"I heard my name." Riku slid into the seat in front of me, his silver curtain of hair waving gently with his movements. "Is this about Imani?"

"No," Axel drawled, rolling his acid green eyes. "This is about Namine and Roxas."

Jade eyes sparkled. "Ah."

"Unless either of you have thought of a solution that wouldn't annihilate the trust between us, I'd rather not discuss this," I told them, ignoring the heat returning to my face.

The two glanced at each other, a shared acknowledgement exchanged in one look. "Try talking to him," Riku suggested.

I deflated in my seat. "But—"

"Before you say anything, think about it," Axel cut in. "You've known Roxas since birth."

"Literally," Riku added.

"That's fifteen years you've been best friends through everything. _Fifteen_."

"A friendship like the one you two have didn't spring up overnight."

"You two know everything about each other—"

"Except the hidden feelings you harbor."

"Do you really think Roxas would turn away from you if you told him how uncomfortable you feel about your kissing?"

"Don't you think he'd understand?"

"Don't you think Roxas would feel a little hurt if he learned somewhere along the way that you kept something this big from him for two years?"

"You don't have to confess that you're madly in love with him just yet."

"Take things slowly."

"He respects you enough to make sure you're completely comfortable around him and that you still trust him."

I blinked and let my jaw hang. "If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you two were best friends."

They both scoffed. "Best friends with _this_ guy?" Axel jabbed a thumb in Riku's direction.

"Sora's nowhere nearly as obnoxious as him," Riku stated.

"Roxas isn't a stuck-up pretty boy," Axel muttered.

I propped up my head on my elbow and watched the two banter back and forth.

"At least Imani had feelings for me."

"That was in the seventh grade! You didn't even return those feelings!"

"But that opened the door for us to become closer than you and she had ever been."

"I'll have you know that my advances are chipping away her stubbornness—"

"More like building up her defeated indifference to counter your annoying behavior."

"She hasn't killed me yet."

"_Yet._"

"Class is in session!" our homeroom teacher, Mr. Cogsworth, interrupted. "We're two minutes behind already! Where is Alice?"

Axel and Riku finally broke their spat and reluctantly turned to the front of the room as someone called, "She said she's running late. She missed her bus."

"Again?" The stout man sighed, his belly jiggling as he released his breath. "Should she keep this up, I'm afraid we'll need to elect a new class representative."

Riku leaned back to whisper to Axel, "You should volunteer. Imani's class rep for her homeroom."

"She _hates_ it and you know it," Axel hissed back. "The only reason she agreed to it was because Sora wouldn't stop giving her the puppy-dog look."

He gave a half-shrug. "Maybe you can make things better for her if you join."

He tilted his head to Mr. Cogsworth slightly. "She thinks chubby-clock has it out for her. And why are you helping me?"

I had to wonder that myself…and to stop myself from giggling at Axel's nickname for our homeroom teacher.

Riku smirked, his silver hair hanging over part of his face like a curtain. "When it comes to Imani, you need all the help you can get."

"Mr. Flynn and Mr. Gallagher."

Both guys flinched, their eyes inching to the front of the room. A ruffled Mr. Cogsworth glared at them and crossed his arms authoritatively. "Care to include the class in your urgent discussion?" he asked.

Riku smoothly responded, "I was just telling Axel that he'd be a great candidate for class representative."

Murmurs and giggles erupted amongst our classmates. Mr. Cogsworth arched a thick eyebrow. "Are you nominating _Mr. Flynn_ for the position?"

His back was turned to me, but I could hear the smirk in his voice. "Yeah. I am."

Before Mr. Cogsworth could reply, I raised my hand and said, "I second the nomination."

The murmuring and giggling grew louder just as Axel's eyes grew to the size of golf balls. "What the hell are you doing?" he mouthed.

"M-Miss Snow!" Mr. Cogsworth gasped. "Y-You…Are you…?"

"Despite his bad-boy appearance and sharp tongue, Axel is one of the top five students in our grade," I said with a smile. "He works hard and is a good friend who cares for others. I believe he's well-suited for the job. Right, Riku?"

He turned back to me, winking one of his jade eyes. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

Mr. Cogsworth's mouth hung open and snapped shut like a fish in water. Soon, though, he came to his senses and mumbled, "I-I will consider the nomination. I've yet to decide whether to replace Alice or not."

I nodded approvingly. It was a start. The more time Imani spent with Axel, the sooner she'd realize her feelings for him and his feelings for her. Riku seemed to have come to the same conclusion.

"You're lucky Roxas isn't interested in school politics," Axel groaned as Mr. Cogsworth resumed his babbling. "You would've been voted rep in a heartbeat."

"She spends enough time with Roxas already." Riku snorted.

Axel smirked. "Yeah. Enough _quality_ time—"

"One more word from either of you, Mr. Flynn and Mr. Gallagher, and you will be reporting to detention this afternoon."

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Sorry that there's no Roxas/Namine action this time. I figured the last chapter was pretty intense. I promise that you'll read about the two in the next chapter. Please leave a review! Thanks for reading!


	5. The Badass Dare

**Author's Comments: **Hello! Thank you for all your lovely reviews and words of encouragement, and thank you for your patience. Here is the fifth installment! Hope you enjoy reading!**  
**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

"Man…"

Once more I flicked my eyes to the front corner of the room where Kairi's boyfriend sat. He propped up his head with his elbow on his desk, his azure eyes unfocused. He obviously was not listening to a word poor Miss Jane was saying. (It was obvious to everyone but Miss Jane herself—she was too immersed in Mercutio's plagues.) When Sora sighed, he literally _deflated_ in his chair.

My notion to pass a note to him quickly died when I heard the bell ring. "Practice those monologues!" Miss Jane called as we gathered our things. "Don't forget your presentation dates!"

Slinging my bag on and picking up my books, I hurried to get to Sora's side. "Hey," I said, matching each slow trudge out the door. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, hey, Nam." He sighed again, his backpack strap an inch away from falling off his drooping shoulders. "It's nothing much…"

I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. "Come on. You can tell me."

"It's just…" One hand reached up to scratch the back of his head as he groaned. "Demyx told me earlier that Battle of the Bands this year might be canceled."

"What?" I gasped. "_Canceled? _But you guys are supposed to debut at this year's competition!"

"I know!" Sora moaned loudly, earning strange looks from passing students. "The producers can't find a venue since Club Pumpkinhead is undergoing renovations right now…and I mean, the renovations are _good_ since their sound system _sucks_, but did they have to do it _now?_"

The corners of my mouth sagged into a frown. "I'm sorry. I wish there was a way I could…"

Wait.

"…Nam?"

My eyes widened and my frown did a one-eighty. That's perfect!

"Namine?"

"Seventh Heaven!" I cried, walking through the cafeteria door Sora held open. We halted at the end of the long lunch line. "Maybe you could ask Tifa to hold Battle of the Bands at her place!"

"Ask Tifa to…" Slowly Sora's eyes brightened and a huge grin burst onto his face. He let the door swing behind us and jumped up excitedly. "Namine, you're a genius! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Think of what?"

My heart leapt at Roxas' voice and froze as his lips landed on mine briefly. "What're you two talking about?" he asked nonchalantly.

As my face heated up, Sora's cheeks became tinged with a light shade of pink and his jaw bobbed up and down for a moment. "I-I still can't get used to seeing you do th-that," he stammered under his breath.

"I um…I suggested asking Tifa to hold this year's Battle of the Bands at Seventh Heaven," I said while silently daring myself to recover quicker than Sora. "The producers are having a hard time finding a new venue."

Fingers brushed against my elbow and left my skin on fire as Roxas signaled for us to move along with the line. "Oh yeah," he nodded. "Good idea. I think either Cloud or Leon could get in touch with the producers to pass on the suggestion. What do you think, Sora?"

"Y-Yeah," he answered, clearing his throat as the blush faded. "Xaldin could probably do it, too."

"Hey guys!" Kairi bounced up to us, pecking Sora on the cheek. "So-o-o-o…guess which lovable basketball-player-dork finally fessed up to our favorite bookworm?"

"No way!" I gasped for the second time. "Hayner told Olette?"

"And they're an item!" she squealed, clapping her hands. "Isn't it great?"

Before I could answer, lanky Axel waltzed up to us and flashed a grin. "Mind if I cut in?"

"Yes," we all chorused with half-lidded eyes.

He didn't retreat to the back of the line, though. He heaved a long-suffering sigh and began to move with us further towards the register. "Totally feeling the love today, guys."

Roxas shook his head. "Imani gave you the cold shoulder in Algebra?"

"Actually, she seemed pretty happy," Axel mused, scratching a pale cheek with one finger as his other hand reached into his back pocket for his wallet. "She only growled at me once. She wouldn't tell me why she was in a good mood, though."

My own hand snaked around in my bag for my wallet as I remembered my unfinished conversation with Imani earlier. We'd have to pick up on it later.

"Let's see…" Kairi murmured, picking out a few bills from her purse. "Imani's at a student government meeting, Riku's tutoring Hayner and Pence…Is there anyone we need to save seats for?"

"I don't think so," I shook my head. Soon after Roxas set his money down for the cashier I placed my money next to his. "What's for lunch today?"

We all turned to Axel, the tallest of our group, as he searched the front of the line and narrowed his eyes. "Looks like lasagna…but it's got green stuff on it."

"Basil, probably." Roxas wrinkled his nose. "I hope."

Slowly we advanced to the food and grabbed our plates, eyeing the lasagna warily as we emerged into the dining area to find an empty table. Eventually the five of us found one in the far corner of the cafeteria. "Hurry!" Sora cried, running as best he could with a plate of food and his heavy backpack.

We all laughed at his rushed behavior and jogged awkwardly to follow…

"Too bad, suckers. We called this spot first, you know?"

On the other side of the table loomed the four seniors whose attitudes made up most of their infamous reputation: the outspoken, burly football vice captain Rai; the quiet, straight-A valedictorian Fuu; the strange, always-hooded Vivi; and the pompous football captain jerk Seifer. Everyone was relieved that this group would only be around for a few more weeks.

"Guess you'll have to find somewhere else to sit." Seifer smirked, crossing his arms. The action made his already-too-small shirt ride up a little more.

"But we saw it first!" Sora argued, defiantly setting his plate down and fisting his hands. "Being seniors doesn't give you the right to do whatever you want."

"Ooh, look at the freshmen trying to stand up to us!" Rai roared, spreading his arms out in mock defense. "Pretty brave, you know? But pretty stupid, too, you know?"

"Pointless," Fuu murmured, crossing her arms.

Seifer's smirk grew wider. "Stop trying to be goody-two-shoes and start showing us the respect we deserve."

"Jeez," Axel growled, running a hand through his hair as Roxas moved to stand next to Sora. "You guys are really full of it, _you know?_ Just back off for once and find somewhere else to sit."

"What if we don't want to, jackass?" Seifer laughed. "You think you're so bad just because you dyed your hair red and you wear black every day? You're probably too chicken to do anything _really_ badass!"

Without seeing his face I could hear his eyebrow arch amusedly. "Is that a dare?"

"Axel…" Roxas warned lowly.

Rai's laughter boomed. "You'd better believe it, you know!"

"Shut it, Rai," Seifer hissed, sending his crone into immediate silence. "But that's an idea…"

"Uh-oh," I heard Kairi whimper.

"You want a dare? If you...uh...get a tattoo by the day of the Battle of the Bands competition, we'll back off," Seifer proposed. "If you don't, then you have no right to talk back to us. Until then, we'll just stay clear of each other. Deal?"

I glanced fearfully to Kairi who returned the same look. He would actually go that far?!

"Axel, don't do it!" Sora whispered, his eyes darting between the seniors and our _naturally_-red-haired friend. "It's not worth it—"

"Deal."

"Oh, shit." Roxas clapped a hand onto his face in dread as Sora's arms fell dead at his sides.

"Shake on it," the senior leader commanded, offering a tanned hand across the table.

"Until next Saturday, then," Axel declared, sealing the deal with a firm handshake.

The four seniors stared us down as they moved over to another free table. Roxas raked his hand through his spikes in frustration. "What the hell, Axel? That has to be the stupidest thing you've ever agreed to."

He shrugged, leaping over the tabletop to get to the other side. "Hey, we're in high school," he said, plopping down and digging into his food. "Why can't I be a little rebellious?"

"You're an idiot!" Kairi cried. She and I sat down next to Sora while Roxas stomped around to join Axel. "Tattoos are forever! They're expensive to get and they're even _more_ expensive to remove—"

"Hey, he started it." Tomato sauce nearly splattered out from his mouth as he spoke. "He wants to make this a badness contest? I'm gonna own him so badly he'll wish _he_ was the one who got the tattoo."

The breath slipped out from my lungs as I met eyes with Roxas for a split-second. He had the same thought I did: _He's crazy.

* * *

_

**Author's Afterthought: **What do you think? Interesting? Let me know your opinions, please! Thanks for reading!


	6. The Doomed Secrets

**Author's Comments: **Thank you for waiting patiently! Hope you enjoy reading!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

I spotted Imani and Demyx a little ways off from my locker the next morning. A soft smile grew on my face as I watched him pulled her into a hug before jogging off to his next class. "Tell Tifa she rocks!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Woohoo! Battle of the Ba-a-a-a-ands! BATTLE of the BANDS!"

Imani laughed, waving goodbye until he rounded the corner. Once he was out of sight, though, I noticed her hand drop abruptly, slapping her leg as she groaned lowly.

"Something wrong, Imani?" I called.

She jumped, whirling around and looking at me like a deer caught in headlights. "O-Oh! Namine! Did you say something?"

"I wanted to know if something was bothering you," I said patiently. My fingers twisted my lock to its code and I shifted my hold on my books.

Nervously, Imani stepped closer to my locker. She bit her lip and mumbled around her chewing, "R-Remember when you asked me where I'm working?"

I nodded, switching out a few books from my locker. "Yeah, you didn't get to answer."

She swallowed audibly, glancing around to make sure no one was eavesdropping before whispering, "It's Tifa's bar."

My eyes widened and I nearly dropped my planner. "Tifa's…But Imani! You're underage!"

"Shh!" Her pointer finger quickly positioned itself in front of her puckered lips. "Not so loud!"

I clapped a hand over my mouth and held my breath. Was she being serious?

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "I did everything I could to convince Tifa to let me work there. No other place offers good pay and hours that don't conflict with school like her place does."

"But…why not wait until the summer or next year to find a job? We're only a few weeks away from break."

She glanced away hesitantly. "It's just…Aden's HBU tuition is expensive and he's working really hard to pay off as much as he can," Imani sighed. "I don't want to have to make my mom worry about my tuition when the time comes. I want to earn as much as I can while I'm here so she won't have to pay as much."

"That's…thoughtful of you, but college is a ways off and I'm sure you'll be offered good scholarships when you apply to colleges," I told her. "You've got good grades."

She mumbled under her breath, "They're not good _enough_…But anyway!" Her brow furrowed even deeper. "If people at school find out I'm working in a bar, news will spread to Xemnas and Saix and they'll probably make me quit my job!"

"Well…Isn't there a way you could schedule to not work that day? The competition isn't until next Saturday," I said. "Tifa can work something out, can't she?"

"She already made the schedule for this month and two other workers have requested that day off," Imani moaned. Her fingers began to tug on her hair subconsciously. "If I don't work that night, then it'll just be Tifa and Megara and Larxene. It's really hard to run a bar on the weekend with only three people, _especially_ with Battle of the Bands going on…"

A wave of defeat washed over me as I closed my locker. "I'm sorry I can't be of any help, Imani."

"Oh, no, don't stress yourself over my pro…" she trailed off, her jaw growing slack and her eyes widening tremendously. "Actually, there _is_ a way you could help!"

"There is?" I asked.

"Yeah!" She nodded excitedly. "Do you think Lu—"

The bell rang right at that moment. Imani huffed, glaring at the rusty red plate on the upper wall. "I hate that bell…"

"Tell me later, okay?" I told her. "I really do want to help you."

She grinned, beginning to walk past. "I know. That's what I love about you!"

A faint smile grew on my face as I made my way to homeroom. Just as I was about to enter, Riku clapped a hand on my shoulder and greeted me with a tired "Axel needs to get his head checked."

"So you heard about the tattoo thing," I chuckled. "Do you think he'll go through with it?"

"Has Axel ever backed down from stuff like this?" he sighed, jerking his head to sway away some bangs that got into his eyes. "Anyway, more importantly, when are you going to talk to Roxas?"

I made a note to play dumb as I sat in my seat. "About what?"

His eyes sharpened. "Don't start that."

My resolve crumbled under his gaze and I heaved a sigh. "I don't know…I mean, I thought about it a little and I realized that you and Axel might be right…"

"_Might _be right?" he scoffed. "You doubt Roxas that much?"

I shook my head sadly. "I doubt my ability to tell him clearly without making things awkward between us."

"I think you're making this too complicated for yourself. Just _talk_ to him."

"But…"

"If it'll make you feel better, you can practice with someone or organize your thoughts by writing them down. That way you won't have to worry about saying something strange."

I couldn't come up with an answer, but I found I didn't have to since Axel dragged his feet into the room. "Good morning, Axel," I said.

Riku turned to look over his shoulder and smirked. "And speaking of saying something without thinking…"

"Oh stuff it," Axel grumbled, collapsing into his chair with a roll of his eyes. "I'm gonna do it whether you think it's stupid or not."

"Isn't there an age limit for getting a tattoo?" I asked out of pure curiosity.

"My brother's got connections," he said easily, stretching his long arms to the ceiling before folding them behind his head. "A friend of his runs the one on the same street as Club Pumpkinhead."

I frowned. "That's not what I asked."

"...Eighteen."

As I groaned incoherently and shook my head, Riku propped his head up on the back of his chair and asked, "How did Imani react when she heard you're going to ink yourself up?"

His acid green eyes darted away for a moment before he shut them. "She doesn't know yet."

Both Riku and I blanched. "You didn't tell her?" I whispered.

"No," he snapped his eyes open and sent both of us the death glare, "and you'd better not rat me out. Got it memorized?"

"But why?" I tilted my head, but the movement didn't help my mind wrap around his strange request. "She's going to find out sooner or later, right?"

"Could it be…? Are you feeling insecure about getting tattoos when it comes to Imani?" Riku wondered slash accused.

Axel almost fell off his chair. He sputtered incredulously, "H-How the hell did you come up with _that_ conclusion?"

"Class is in session!" Mr. Cogsworth announced before Riku could respond. Neither of us needed to hear anything more from Axel, anyway. The blush on his pale cheeks revealed the truth.

I smiled and shook my head. Though Imani should probably know about this, if Axel wanted it this way, then I'd go along with it for now. He was the one getting the tattoos, after all…and as long as he didn't get the tattoos somewhere obvious—like his face—then Imani would never have to know…

* * *

**EDIT: **I realized I had mentioned Lexaeus twice in this story with two different roles. For reference, he's Radiant Garden High's Algebra teacher, _not_ a worker at Tifa's bar. Also, Megara is from _Hercules_, in case the name didn't ring a bell.

**Author's Afterthought: **I've noticed that my chapters in this story are incredibly short compared to the chapters I've written in my other stories (i.e. _Memoirs of the Emotionally Stupid_) so from now on I'm going to try lengthening my chapters. That way the story will progress a little bit faster with more detail and less chapters to wade through. What do you think? Leave a review, please!


	7. The Helpful Resources

**Author's Comments:** Hello! Can I hear a "hooray" for the official beginning of longer, somewhat juicier chapters? Thank you for waiting! Please enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.**

* * *

**She took deliberate steps down the cracked sidewalk as if contemplating Imani's request thoroughly. The rest of us were forced to walk just as slowly so we wouldn't leave her behind. "I don't see why you were so hesitant to tell me about this, Imani," Kairi said with a pout. "Don't you trust me?"

"Of course I do!" she insisted, shifting the books she carried in one arm. "It's just…you know, the whole underage thing…"

The suspicious façade soon melted. Kairi shot a glance my way, her excitement seeming to leak from her pores. "You want Luxord to get you a wig?" she squealed.

"Y-Yeah," Imani stuttered as she subconsciously fiddled with one of her jacket drawstrings. "He can do that, right? I-I mean, I'll pay for it and everything—"

"Nonsense!" She airily waved a hand. "Luxord's just the guy who can help you and he wouldn't dream of charging you anything. He's our cousin, after all."

"His salon has everything," I agreed with a nod. "Wigs, makeup, nail polish—"

"Wax, tweezers, those eyelash curling things," Roxas cut in, barely stifling his shiver. "I swear, he can only handle being in a salon because he's not the one who has to get his hair yanked and his eyeballs nearly gouged."

"Oh, Roxas," I sighed. "It's really not that bad. Doesn't Cloud have to go through ritual beauty processes for his modeling?"

He scoffed. "No. He's _naturally_ hairless in all the right places."

Kairi gasped loudly. "_Really?_"

"Can we not talk about this anymore?" he whined, holding the glass door open. "It's awkward enough having to come with you girls to a _salon_."

"You didn't _have _to come," Kairi shot back, sticking out her tongue as she walked past him into Divine Rose, the high-end salon our cousin Luxord worked in. "You could've went off with Sora and Axel and Riku to their rehearsal."

"They wouldn't let me come." My heart melted at his slight pout. "They said I _had_ to wait until Battle of the Bands to hear them play. They wouldn't explain why they let Axel go with them and not me, either."

We watched as the two girls glanced at each other for a split-second. "Weird" was all Imani said with a shrug while Kairi turned to the robust woman standing on the other side of the counter.

"Hey Ms. De La Bouche," she greeted brightly. "Are you standing in for Snow White?"

"Yes," Ms. De La Bouche sighed. "She's taking her break right now. It took me half an hour to convince her to sit down. She works too hard, that young girl."

"It's nice of you to cover for her," I said.

"Well, I do what I can," she nodded, gently patting down her lavender blouse. "But enough about me! How can I help you young ones?"

"We were wondering if Luxord was free now," Kairi spoke for us. "We've got a special job for him."

"Oh?" Her hazel eyes brightened immediately and she leaned forward conspiratorially. "Do tell!"

"We need—" Kairi and I grabbed each of Imani's arms and dragged her up front, "—to change her appearance dramatically without sacrificing the way she looks now."

"Hmm…" Ms. De La Bouche tapped a chubby finger to her double-chin thoughtfully as her eyes scanned Imani up and down. "An easy disguise is what you're implying, right?"

"Exactly!" Kairi and I said.

She clapped her hands and bounced on the balls of her feet. "Ooh! How exciting! I don't even care _why_ you'd want to change your lovely look! Makeovers are always so thrilling!"

"Good grief," Roxas muttered behind us.

Besides my smile widening, I managed to ignore his comment. "Would you like to help, Ms. De La Bouche?"

"I'd _love_ to!" she exclaimed. "We don't have any appointments for the next half an hour so let's not waste any time! We'll meet with Luxord in the back and talk about options…"

She rambled on and on, her thick fingers wrapped around Imani's upper arm as she and Kairi led her further into the salon. "You two coming?" Kairi called over her shoulder when she noticed me and Roxas lagging behind.

"Go ahead," I told her. "I want to be surprised."

"If you say so." With a final shrug she rushed along with the two and disappeared around the corner.

The four of them would take a while so I walked over to the nearest chair and sat down, skimming over the front pages of the outdated gossip magazines lying on the coffee table. From the corner of my eye I noticed Roxas beginning to swing his right arm slightly—his little habit whenever he felt awkward or unsure of what to do—and I had to swallow down a giggle. "You don't have to stay," I told him quietly.

His lips curl back as he prepared to speak, but he seemed to think twice about it, settling for a noncommittal grunt. His arm swung a little stronger as he strode over to sit in the chair next to mine. A laugh exploded from my chest.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

I shook my head with a smile. "What are you thinking about?"

Roxas's face scrunched up in frustration. "Axel's stupid deal with Seifer," he grumbled.

"You're worried about him."

"Of course I am. This is the deepest hole he's dug himself into yet."

"Honestly, I think he's done worse," I said, crossing my legs and studying the cream-colored ceiling. "Remember the time he lit a match and threw it into the baking soda volcano?"

"That was _nothing_," Roxas claimed. "The firecracker lockdown incident tops the volcano episode easily."

Roxas and I met Axel at summer camp in Destiny Island right before middle school. The lanky pre-teen struck both of us as an oddball from the moment we laid eyes on him: he was outspoken, devious, and unusually obsessed with anything that produced fire. The red spiky hair only made him stand out more in the crowd of soon-to-be middle schoolers…and the strangest thing was that he didn't seem to mind one bit.

But Roxas minded…in the beginning, anyway.

_"He keeps trying to hang around me," he muttered to me across the invisible territory line during a game of dodge-ball between our groups. "I tried ignoring him _and_ shooting him glares. Nothing works!"_

_ "Why not try and get to know him?" I suggested. "Maybe there's more to him than meets the eye."_

Eventually, he reluctantly started talking back to Axel and found an honest, trustworthy friend in him. Despite the foolishly insane feats he pulled off, Axel turned out to be one of the smartest and most genuine people Roxas and I had ever met. Neither of us could imagine life without Axel.

"No way!" I cried with a laugh. "What about when he dipped his thumb in red paint and stamped it all over the advanced art class' model drawings a few months ago?"

"I think you're a little biased about that one."

"No I'm not!"

He held up his hands and leaned away. "Don't get me wrong—I thought that was way overboard, too, but he's done worse than that."

"What could be worse?" I demanded.

"Try…" He chewed on his lower lip (and I found my eyes shamelessly drawn to the action) while he mulled over the question. "Oh!" He snapped his fingers, looked me straight in the eye, and declared, "The time he tried to kiss Imani in the middle of Bio a few years ago."

I froze, my jaw open and my lungs dysfunctional. The only thing that didn't completely halt was my rapidly beating heart.

"You have to admit that was pretty crazy," he laughed with a shake of his head. "No matter what anyone says to him, though, he'll always say that seeing Imani blush was totally worth the effort."

"…I-It was cr…crazy, alright," I managed to stammer out.

"Not only that, because of his attempt, _we've_ started kissing," he went on, blissfully unaware.

My insides twisted unpleasantly. "Why?"

He halted, focusing on me with his painfully blue eyes. "Huh?"

Before I could stop myself, I murmured, "Why do you continue to kiss me even after you'd found your answer?"

Roxas blinked, tilting his head to one side. "Don't you think it brings us closer as friends?"

The words rang in my ears louder than church bells and my heart sank deeper. _As friends? As friends? As _friends?

"Hey…" I vaguely noticed him lean closer. "You okay?"

Suddenly, Kairi zoomed back into the room and exclaimed, "Behold the transformation of an average innocent freshman into a suh-MO-king hot bar waitress! Dun dah da-a-a-ah!"

Wiping my face clean from the heavy sadness I felt seeping through, I craned my head around Roxas to watch Kairi step to the side for Imani to enter.

* * *

For ten whole minutes I sat on my stool in the empty art room and stared at the blank sheet of paper lying before me. Only when I heard a particularly loud clang (someone shutting a locker door, probably) in the hallway outside did I realize I'd been zoning out. I nearly laughed aloud at the thought of being able to start thinking about paper lanterns and fireworks and find myself fretting about Roxas.

I finally set my pencil down and sighed. This wasn't working. I couldn't focus. My mind kept drifting back to that conversation I had with Roxas a few days ago. I'd barely managed to keep my unease hidden behind fake smiles and concealed shudders whenever he was present, kissing or not. The worst part of it all was that the words still stung in my chest every time I repeated them mentally.

_Time for a change of pace,_ I decided, carefully putting away my things and returning the unused paper to the stack at the back of the room. Maybe if I did a little research in the library, I'd focus more on my project and gather more ideas.

As I carefully shut the door behind me, I padded down the hall to the staircase at the end. Only a few people wandered near the lockers lining the walls. The rush of incoming students wouldn't come until seven-forty-ish, I assumed. That was usually when Roxas and I arrived, anyway.

I winced, balling my fist as I descended the stairs. I needed to stop thinking about him!

The library sat outside the main building next to the covered gymnasium, ironically. From experience, though, I believed the walls of the library were soundproofed. Many evenings I'd told Roxas of my plans to arrive at school earlier than normal the next morning to do some research in the library for projects. Sometimes he'd accompany me (dragging his feet and collapsing in the chair next to mine for a quick nap, usually) but on occasions when he was especially exhausted, I would catch the bus to school alone.

No, I wasn't lying in hopes of avoiding him and squeezing in a few more hours of solitude to collect my thoughts about him—I really needed to get head starts on my projects…sometimes…

I approached the door and grabbed the handle, pressing down on it before pushing the door open. I'd learned during my first few trips to the library that the door squeaked really loudly if one tried to open it without pressing down their full weight on the handle first. The intern librarian, Mr. Corazza (who preferred to be called Zexion but only by regular library patrons), taught me the trick out of mild exasperation.

My entrance drew his attention from where he sat behind the front desk. Offering him a small wave which he returned with a slight nod, I tiptoed to the history section in the right corner of the building and began my search.

"Chinese history…" I whispered to myself, my eyes scanning the long shelves of books. "Maybe I should just try looking for books on China…"

"_Mulan_, I'm presuming?"

I jumped, whirling around to find the owner of the hushed voice. "Oh my goodness," I breathed, placing a palm over my racing heart. "You scared me, Imani."

"S-Sor…" A huge yawn crawled from her mouth before she could finish the apology. Her hand quickly reached up to cover the gaping hole. "Sorry. Just thought I'd come say hi since I saw you walking in."

"What are you doing here so early?" I asked with a small smile.

"I worked late last night and my mom wouldn't let me stay up to finish my homework," she explained, tilting her head to the table where her stuff was scattered. "Not that I could, anyway. I think I collapsed the moment I hit the bed. I have to finish everything before the bell rings." Her coffee eyes watched me suspiciously. "What about you? You rarely come to school this early unless…"

"I wanted to get a head start on my next project," I told her, willing my despair to stay hidden in a far corner of my mind to collect dust. "By the way, how did the disguise hold up?"

"Good," she said absentmindedly, that knowing glint in her eyes lingering for a few moments as she studied me. Soon a cheery gleam eclipsed her suspicion and she smiled. "Tifa hardly recognized me when I got there…but…"

I frowned. "But?"

She rushed out, "But some guys tried getting me to drink BUT that's to be expected from working at a bar, right? Especially when they don't suspect I'm in high school." She laughed nervously, her fingers tugging on a few strands of hair. "Zack and Larxene watched out for me by tending to the rowdiest bunch and Tifa threatened to kick some people out…"

I shook my head and sighed. "You'll never hear the end of it when Kairi finds out—"

"Oh please don't tell her!" she begged, clasping her hands together before her.

Someone cleared his throat. I peered around Imani just as she turned to the sound to find Zexion eyeing us disapprovingly with his one visible indigo orb. "Keep it down," he mouthed.

"Sorry," I whispered. Then I turned back to the shelf and began searching for good resource material, picking out random books and flipping through them to look for pictures. "I think she deserves to know," I murmured to Imani. "She'll feel hurt if you don't tell her something like this."

"I know," she sighed, moving down the shelf along with me.

"She's not as blabbermouthed as she was in middle school," I went on. My eyes lit up at seeing some beautiful paper lanterns hung along a street during some sort of town fair.

Her sense of being guilt-tripped sounded like it had become more profound. "I know."

"I won't tell her, but only because I think you should be the one to let her know."

"Yes, _mother_."

Well, perhaps not _that_ profound.

A smile crept onto my face. I shut the book I was looking in and gathered a couple more before turning to her half-smiling face. "I enjoy our morning chats," I announced.

She laughed quietly. "Too bad they always seem to get cut off by the bell. Oh! Speaking of which, I'd better get back to finishing homework…"

"I'll see you later!" Giving her arm a light pat, I made my way to the front desk and placed my books in front of Zexion. "How are you?"

"Fine, thank you," he answered politely, scanning and stamping each book with practiced skill that the action appeared second-nature. "And you?"

"Fine."

"Miss Brisce didn't overwhelm you with her troubles, did she?"

I blinked, taking the books into my arms again. "No. Why?"

"She spends more time in here than the head librarian himself does," he muttered somewhat bitterly. "The library has become a safe haven of sorts for the nonathletic female student population to run to whenever in the midst of woeful situations in order to distract away from or sort out said woeful situations."

"I bet they're just ogling you from afar," I giggled.

"Hardly." He rolled his eye. "Some girls have come up to me and ask for a listening ear."

"Imani included?" I guessed.

His sigh said it all. "I'm a librarian, not a psychologist, for God's sake."

"But you don't judge. People respect that." I glanced at the table Imani was working at. "It's especially tough to get Imani to open up about her problems. Kairi and I spent months trying to get her to discuss guys with us."

Zexion neither puffed his chest in pride nor cursed his luck at being bothered. "Your books are due in two weeks."

"Thank you."

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Couple notes I need to make...

1. Ms. De La Bouche is the name of the wardrobe from _Beauty and the Beast_.

2. Kairi's saying "smoking" when she goes "suh-MO-king," in case the exaggeration didn't make sense.

3. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but "Brisce" is actually "Scribe" mixed up, alluding to _The Kismet Scribe._

Thank you for reading! Please leave a review and let me know how I'm doing. I'd really appreciate it!


	8. The Consultation

**Author's Comments: **Thank you for waiting. Here's the next chapter-one I'm really hoping you'll like since there's more definite Roxas and Namine interaction and this is the longest chapter I've written for the story yet. Enjoy!**  
**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. I own Imani.

* * *

The low rumble outside signaled that our ride had arrived. "We're going," Roxas called as he and I got up from the couch. Deftly he picked up the controller and switched the TV off. "Bye!"

"Have fun at the movie, guys!" his dad answered back from the kitchen. "Keep an eye on Roxas for us, 'kay, Namine?"

I laughed and said my goodbye, stepping through the door Roxas (who rolled his eyes) held open. We weren't going to the movies. We were going to accompany Axel to his tattoo consultation (because he was just too badass to go _alone_).

Well, technically, _I _was going to accompany Axel. Roxas was coming along to accompany _me_. "I do _not_ support this," he'd repeatedly told the redhead. "I'm only coming to make sure nothing happens to Nam. That's all."

Axel had just shrugged with a smirk on his face. He always had more than one plan to get his best friend to go along with his bidding.

It was a particularly sunny Saturday afternoon, I noticed as I shielded my eyes from the sun and headed towards the jet black camaro growling at the curb. We paused a few feet away, studying the lime green flames licking the doors and the extra shiny hubcaps on the tires. "If this doesn't spell out 'badass' then I don't know what will," Roxas muttered.

"Too bad it's not Axel's car," I added.

The heavily-tinted front passenger window rolled down and Axel glared at us. "What's the hold-up? Get in! We haven't got all day!"

"Jeez." Roxas opened back door and let me slide in first before hopping inside. "Nervous much?"

Axel scoffed, crossing his arms and sinking in his leather seat. "Who's nervous?"

"Just ignore him," the driver—and owner—of the car sighed. "He's been like this all day, yo."

"Hey Reno." Roxas clapped a hand on the other redhead's shoulder, buckling in afterwards. "What's new?"

"Eh," Reno shrugged. He pulled onto the road and began heading for town. "Other than a certain freshman idiot signing himself up for at least a month's worth of being placed under house arrest by the 'rents, not much, yo."

"You didn't _have_ to help me with this, brother dear," Axel sneered.

I smiled when I heard the taunting in his voice as he airily replied, "No I didn't and I still don't. I could just skip over the next exit and keep driving on, far, far away from the parlor with no concern towards you and your appointment—"

"Shut. Up."

"And how are you two lovebirds doing, yo?" Reno flicked his eyes from me to Roxas through the rearview mirror. "I'm on the wedding invite list, right?"

My heart sped up and I blushed so badly I thought I'd explode. "W-We're not…"

"What are you talking about?" Roxas half-asked, half-laughed. When I risked a glance his way, I saw that one corner of his mouth was crooked upward in a confused, blissfully oblivious smile. If I wasn't so startled, I'd have smiled, too.

His eyes lit up devilishly and my palms became clammy. "You know what I'm talking about—"

"No he doesn't," Axel quickly cut in. "Nobody does. What the hell are you saying, Ree-noh?" He gritted his teeth and glared with menace at the driver.

"I was just kidding," he laughed as he smoothly turned onto the highway exit.

The fire on my face wouldn't subside. Making sure Roxas wasn't looking, I shot panicked look Axel's way. _Does Reno know anything?_

_No_, he said with the tiniest of headshakes but then added with a slight quirk of one eyebrow, _but he might suspect._

"So what're you going to get?" Roxas asked Axel.

"Not sure." He turned to the front just as Reno began to parallel-park along the curb.

"He only hasn't decided because he hasn't seen what _I_ can do yet," his brother told us. "My originals sell out the most, yo."

Axel rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

We all unloaded out of the car and followed Reno across the street to a hole-in-the-wall, dingy-looking shop called Darker Than Dark, Reno's workplace and the soon-to-be birthplace of Axel's badness.

"Hello," a whispering voice greeted as we entered. A skinny woman with stitch tattoos on her arms and legs and even her face smiled at us. Her saucer-sized eyes widened when they landed on Axel. "You must be Reno's brother," she murmured. "Axel, right?"

"Yep," Reno answered for him, leaping over the front desk and landing next to the woman. "That's Roxas, that's Namine," he pointed to each of us, "and this is my boss Sally, yo."

"Hello," she said again. Roxas and I smiled back shyly. "You can have a seat here while Axel, Reno, and I go through the consultation in there." She waved a bony hand to the somewhat deflated leather couch at the other end of the room and proceeded to point to a doorframe with cracked dark purple paint in the far corner. Whatever was on the other side of the doorframe was obscured by a long curtain of beads reaching the floor.

I saw a flicker of uncertainty spark in Axel's green eyes as he glanced from Roxas and me to the door. "How long's it going to take?" he asked slowly.

Sally giggled. "About fifteen minutes."

"Oh" was all he replied, shifting from one foot to the other.

My forehead creased and my lungs gripped my breath with worry for the usually-confident Axel. I glanced up at Roxas who returned the look with half-lidded eyes that screamed _He still wants to think he's badass? Really?_

"It's not like you're gonna get the tattoo _today_," Reno jumped in, almost tacking on some derogatory name like "idiot" but then seeming to think better of it. "We're just going over procedures and prices and contract stuff, yo. Y'get to talk about what kinda design you want, too."

"Can we help him decide?" I blurted, partially out of sister-like concern and partially out of concern he'd pick something that could damage his chances with Imani even more than his refusing to tell her about getting tattoos at all alone.

His nerves forgotten for the moment, Axel arched an eyebrow at my outburst. "Wha?"

"Namine's an artist, remember?" Roxas put in with an immediacy that told me he had the same concerns I had. "She'll want to look at the art styles of the designs."

I managed to tone down my wide grin at Roxas' conspiratorial glance. "Right. I'm especially curious about Reno's work."

"And you damn should be!" Reno puffed out his chest and placed his hands on his hips triumphantly. "I'm the reason Darker Than Dark is the city's best tattoo parlor, yo!"

"Darker Than Dark is the city's _only_ tattoo parlor, _yo,_" Axel growled.

"That's perfectly fine," Sally said with a smile, ignoring the brotherly banter. "I'll send for you two when we've reached that point in our consultation, alright? For now, just make yourselves comfortable. Come along, Axel."

Axel gave us a not-too-confident smirk before following Sally into the back room. Reno trailed behind closely, his teeth bared in an almost sinister grin. Strangely, I felt like a parent watching her child walking off to his first day of school…and I had to suppress a blush at the thought of Roxas playing the father role.

"Good grief," he sighed, trudging over to the couch and collapsing wearily on it. "Sometimes I wonder how Imani manages to put up with him."

"Me too," I agreed, sitting down next to him and folding my hands in my lap. "She's clearly in denial about him, though."

"Clearly."

"I wonder what would open her eyes…"

"…Huh?"

I took in the gothic-bohemia designs on the wall opposite us with mild interest. "What could Axel do to make Imani realize she has feelings for him?"

"…Are you feeling sorry for Axel?" he asked, his voice laced with a laugh and incredulity.

"Not necessarily," I shrugged. Bleeding flowers…Fairly original. Whoever painted the walls did a good job. "I just don't want Imani to miss out on a great guy."

"Are we talking about the same Axel?"

"Oh Roxas."

"Kidding."

"What could he do…?" I thought aloud. "What makes her happy?"

"Waffles."

My eyes tore away from the bleeding flowers and locked with his thoughtful ones. "Waffles?"

He nodded. "Some mornings she comes to first period a bit happier than usual. I asked her about it once and she said she was in a fairly good mood because she had waffles for breakfast."

I tried to picture Axel waking up early just to make waffles...wearing a frilly apron and whisking batter...

I failed. "Can Axel even cook?"

"He used to think he could cook raw eggs by putting them in the microwave for a minute or two." Roxas sighed, reaching back to ruffle his hair a little. I watched in slight (hopefully hidden) fascination. "Real boyfriend material."

"He's a work in progress," I smiled.

"You should ask Imani what she looks for in guys," he suggested with a shrug that made his dark t-shirt sleeves hug his shoulders. "She and I don't talk about that sort of thing."

"She wouldn't talk about that with me, either," I shook my head, leaning back into the couch. "The only person who'd discuss something like that with me is Kairi. She's too different from Imani. Whatever she tells me won't help Imani's situation."

"Yeah. Sora and Axel are as different as cheesecake and socks," Roxas said.

I blinked. "…What?"

The look on my face made him clear his throat and glance away awkwardly, a slight tinge of red coloring his cheeks. "S-So…what about you?"

Cute…Oh no. I blushed, too. "M-Me?"

"Yeah." He coughed, still avoiding my gaze. "What do you look for in guys?"

I almost groaned as my blush deepened and I found I was glad he wasn't looking at me. "I…I um…w-well…"

The last of his blush disappeared and he put on an easy smile, imploring me with his lovely blue eyes and propping his head up on the back of the couch with his arm. "C'mon, you can tell me. I won't laugh."

I didn't think he'd laugh, either. Not when he heard that he was everything I'd looked for. Not when he heard I'd measure up every single guy I'd met to him. Not when he heard every guy had missed the mark by miles compared to him.

I knew I couldn't lie to Roxas, so I didn't. He was the one who pointed out my finger-twiddling habit to me when I tried to lie about eating the rest of his favorite cereal when we were eight. "I don't look for anything specific," I mumbled, squeezing my hands together tightly to prevent my fingers from even twitching.

"You don't?" He quirked an eyebrow. "Then how can you tell which guy is _the_ guy?"

I wanted to blurt "I already know _you're_ the guy! You've always been _the_ guy!" but I bit my tongue until I found the mind to answer, "I suppose I'll just know. It'll hit me out of the blue…like when I'm eating breakfast one morning or when I'm walking to class…or when I'm mixing paint or flipping channels on TV…or something."

Carefully holding my breath, I dared myself to look at Roxas for his reaction. The breath seeped out of my lungs with ease when I saw him staring without a smile, his brow creased and his eyes drowning me. "Hey," he finally said, "promise me something?"

"What?" I murmured, breathless and commanding myself to_ stop imitating a tomato_.

"When you find _the_ guy," he began quietly, "promise me that I'll be the first to know. Not Kairi. Not Imani. Not even your parents. Promise me that you'll tell _me_ first."

The intensity in his eyes made my own eyes water. Every word he said made my heart hammer harder and my brain forget faster how to breathe. The room seemed to pulse with some unsaid emotion behind his request.

"Promise?" he whispered.

Soft clacking from the curtain of beads broke the pressure—the magic?—and I finally snapped away from his gaze. Sally stood in the doorway, both stitch-tattooed hands holding the curtain aside down the middle. "We're discussing Axel's choice of design," she announced. "Would you like to join us?"

"Yes," I said—screamed?—while standing abruptly and making my way to the back room.

The two redheads were sitting down, one with his back hunched over and the other lounging on a squeaky stool. The walls in this room were painted with strange symbols and creatures that all had blank yellow eyes. Various cabinets lined the walls and a massage table shared the middle space with the tattoo artist chair.

"Hey," Axel waved. "What's up?"

"Just what I was about to ask." Roxas sidled to Reno's side. "What're you drawing?"

"Reno thinks he can come up with something I'd like," Axel scoffed, a great deal more relaxed than he appeared just ten minutes earlier. "I call BS."

"Aw, shut your trap," Reno answered coolly, his hand never ceasing its movements.

Though tempted to observe, a question tugging at my brain caused me to turn to Sally first. "I was wondering who painted your walls outside. They're beautiful."

Her long rope-like hair waved gently as she nodded to the drawing redhead. "That was Reno. He also did this room, too."

My jaw dropped. "R-Really?"

"I know. I kick ass," he murmured absently. "Commit it to memory."

"I hereby copyright that line."

"No can do without legal processes, lil' bro, yo."

"Rox is gonna study law in college. I reserve the right to copyright the line. Yo."

Roxas glared at Axel while leaning over Reno to see his work. "Hey…" His blue eyes widened. "That's…"

Axel and I crowded around Reno to find him drawing what looked to be something of a cross between an upside-down heart and an extra-pointy spearhead. The contrast between curves and points along with the intricate vines snaking the edges…plus the multi-tone shading…and the tendrils swirling around…and the _flames_…

"It's perfect," I whispered.

"Yeah…" I heard his lips pull back into a feral grin. "Yeah! I'll get this one, too!"

My head shot up along with Roxas' to gape at Axel wide-eyed. "_Too?_"

"The idiot wants to get tattoos on his _face_," Reno explained as he shaded in some flames.

Roxas looked ready to hit Axel upside the head. "Y-Your _face?_ What the heck are you gonna put on your face? Whiskers? A moustache? _Teardrops?_"

Axel opened his mouth to respond, but the suggestions Roxas spewed made his eyes light up and a goofy grin spread on his face. "Actually, that sounds like a good—"

"Xemnas is gonna suspend you for violating dress code!" he shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "Plus it's already _illegal_ for someone under eighteen to get a tattoo!"

"Tattoos aren't banned from school, and I'd be all the more badass for getting tattoos on my face at fifteen!" Axel countered easily. "Seifer will _have_ to leave us alone because of this!"

His logic made my head spin. "What about Imani?" I moaned, one of my hands cradling my head. "What will she think when she sees? I thought you didn't want her to know you were getting tattoos!"

"Do you even have enough money to _pay_ for more than one tattoo?" Roxas demanded. "What if you can't complete all your tattoos by next Saturday?"

Axel shrugged, completely ignoring my question. "I don't have to get them all at the same time. Seifer didn't say what kind or how many tattoos to get. As long as I have one, he'll have to keep to the deal."

"Why don't you take a day or two to think about what you'd like to get?" Sally suggested, finally breaking into the conversation. "Since Reno will be the one drawing on your tattoos, we can work out a session schedule to fit your needs."

For the first time, Axel's jaw dropped and his brow furrowed. "_Reno's_ doing it? Why can't _you_ do it?"

"I'm the one drawing this, yo," Reno said. "It's not gonna come out the same if she does it."

"Think about it," Sally said again.

Roxas and I held our breaths as we watched Axel's face relax and his eyes flit from side to side as he debated Sally's suggestion. "Fine," he muttered, his shoulders sagging as we breathed a sigh of slight relief. "But I _am _getting a tattoo. When are you free tomorrow?"

Roxas groaned and slapped his forehead as Sally stepped to the front room to get her appointment book. So much for thinking about it.

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Ah, I love writing Axel scenes. We'll be seeing a lot of him in this story...Yay?

Please let me know how I'm doing! Leave a review! Thank you for reading!


	9. The Countless Priorities

**Author's Comments: **Hello! How's your summer going? Hope you're enjoying yourself and that you enjoy reading this next installment.**  
**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the lyrics to "Nothing on You" by B.o.B. (feat. Bruno Mars). I own Imani.

* * *

After parting ways with Roxas (I just knew my heart would _never_ learn to fight off that dull ache I get every time he kissed me), I spent at least three minutes staring at the rusted back wall of my locker, my fingers curled around my pencil case. When I finally realized I was zoning out, I shut my locker and turned around to lean against it with a sigh.

I really wanted to find out what Imani looked for in guys, but she and I never talked about it. I didn't want to make her uncomfortable or to give the impression of being nosy. She didn't discuss anything related to the opposite sex with anyone…

"_Beautiful girls all over the world…dun da duh da-ah but my time would be wasted…"_

My jaw dropped as I watched the singing junior bob his Mohawk-mulleted head to his mp3 as he strolled past.

_"They got nothing on yooooooou, bay-ee-bay-ay. Nothing on yoooooou, bay-ee-bay—_"

Quickly I pushed myself off my locker and hurried to his side. "Demyx!" I half-shouted, placing a hand on his arm to get his attention.

His hair fluttered as he whirled his head to look at me. "Hey, Nam!" he cried, breaking into an even bigger grin and yanking out an earbud. "I feel like I haven't seen you in _forever!_"

"It's been a while," I agreed with my own smile. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

Demyx's pale blue eyes widened and his grin drooped. "Uh…r-really? Like what?"

His strange reaction made me hesitate for a second, but soon I waved him to bend down so I could whisper in his ear, "It's about Imani."

"Imani?" he exclaimed, jerking back like I told him I was being threatened by the city's most notorious gang. A glimmer of relief lit up his eyes, though.

I shrank back from his loud response. "It's just…you two are close…You've known her since you two were kids and I wanted—"

"Wait." He held the hand that wasn't cradling his mp3, his eyebrow quirking slowly. "Is this about Axel?"

I blinked. "Y-Yeah."

"Is this about how blind Imani is and how Axel can't seem to get a break?"

"Y-Yeah—"

"Oh thank _God!_" He placed his hand on his chest and exhaled loudly, his eyes rolling to the ceiling. "I've been wanting to do something about it for _ages_. Something _has_ to be done! She seriously doesn't see what's right in front of her."

"Y…Yeah!" I nodded enthusiastically. "I was going to ask you if you knew anything that Axel could do to make her think twice about him."

Demyx waved a hand confidently. "I'm sure I can think of something and we can brainstorm and stuff! Oh, this is gonna be so cool! The three of us are like teaming up on a secret mission to nudge Ax in the right direction and make Imani realize how lucky she is!"

I blinked. "The three of us?"

"Yeah—you, me, and Zex!" He smiled so widely that I half-expected his cheeks to tear.

"The librarian Zexion?" I tilted my head.

"He's the only Zexion I know of!" he nodded. "Imani thinks I don't know that she's confiding in him. Psh." He waved a hand again. "Who does she think I am?"

I couldn't help laughing. Demyx was known for his connections. "Alright, then. When should we meet—"

The bell cut me off.

"Ack! Gotta run!" Demyx nearly tripped as he dashed past me down the hall, shouting over his shoulder, "Library after school!"

I waved to him and began walking to class. When I stepped through the door, I saw that Axel and Riku were already in their seats, leaning towards each other and whispering conspiratorially…at least, that was what they looked like they were doing.

"Hey guys," I cut in, squeezing past Riku's desk and sliding into my chair. "What're you guys talking about?"

"Nothing special," Axel shrugged after a strange beat of silence. "I was telling Riku about getting the tats yesterday."

"I bet you were bawling like a baby," Riku smirked.

"Was _not,_" he growled, narrowing his eyes. Only then did I notice the carefully concealed circular bandages under each eye. From the makeup smudging in the edges, I assumed Kairi helped him out a little this morning.

All the same, my heart dropped to my stomach. "You got the ones on your _face?_" I moaned.

"I _told_ you guys I was gonna do it," he shrugged, a hand reaching up to gingerly pat down the skin-colored bandage. "The badass factor is ten times greater when everyone can see."

"You're going to get expelled," Riku hissed, his eyes glittering dangerously. "Xemnas has zero tolerance for stuff like this."

"I'll deal with whatever he throws at me." Axel smirked and mussed up Riku's hair. "It's very sweet of you to worry about me, Ree-koo."

"Cut it out, Ax," Riku snapped, batting his hand away. "I'm being serious—"

"I understand that school ends next week, but _please _take heed to finish strong! Finals come _before_ summer fantasies!" Mr. Cogsworth shouted over the din as he entered. He set his thick tomes down on his desk and waddled to the blackboard. "I've also an announcement to make: Because the school year is nearly finished, I've decided to keep Alice as our class representative, despite her constant tardiness."

A few students groaned, a few sighed in relief, and a few (like Riku and I) laughed and patted Axel on the back. "Maybe next year," I consoled him.

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh don't be like that!" I giggled. "You know you want to spend all the time you can get with her."

"But who's to say Imani will run for class rep next year?" Riku pondered quietly as Mr. Cogsworth rambled on. "She _hated_ it this year."

"Only because Mr. Cogsworth is head teacher for student politics," I said. "Aside from him, I think she kind of enjoys it. She knows the involvement will look good on her transcripts, too."

"Along with co-managing the junior varsity blitzball team with Kairi and earning those A's and B's," Riku added. "Plus her jo—I mean…"

I winced inwardly while he clenched his jaw. He was going to mention her _job_.

Axel's back straightened considerably. "Her what?"

"Nothing," Riku quickly answered.

Before Axel could push the subject anymore, I interrupted, "I don't know how she manages to keep up with everything. I mean, she has amazing memory and blitzball season just finished, but…"

"She's a _beast_," Riku agreed.

"Her _what?_" Axel demanded a little louder, slamming his palm onto his desktop.

"Pay attention," Mr. Cogsworth commanded, "lest the three of you would care to stay behind today for detention."

"You'd better tell me later," Axel hissed to us before turning to the front, "or else. Got it memorized?"

Riku and I exchanged a glance. He rolled his eyes in an _ooh-I'm-SO-scared-of-his-badass-ness_ way and I nearly laughed out loud. We both knew how to lie, and even if Axel saw through whatever we told him, we knew how to keep out mouths shut.

* * *

"So it's just you and me today, huh?" Kairi chirped as we grabbed an empty table and set our bags and plates of food down. "Everyone else's got lunch meetings and stuff."

I counted off with my fingers while sitting down, "Roxas is at a meeting for next fall's struggle season, Imani's at student government, Riku's tutoring, Sora's going over the band lineup for this Saturday with Demyx, Axel has detention with Mr. Lexaeus…"

"I heard he was playing with Imani's hair this time," my cousin laughed. "You know what he told me once? He said he felt the need to do something new to her every Algebra class because variety—"

"Is the spice of life!" I burst in giggles. "He told me that too!"

"Did he say it with the accent?"

"And the salsa steps!"

"He nearly tripped—"

"And knocked over Mr. Xemnas as he was walking past!"

Laughter racked our stomachs so badly we could hardly get a bite or two past our lips before clapping our hands over our mouths and shaking in mirth together. "Hoo…Okay, we need to change the subject," Kairi declared breathlessly.

"O-Okay…Well, I should tell you," I started as the giggles slowly died down, "I'm meeting with Demyx and Zexion after school to conspire about Axel and Imani."

"Really?" her eyes lit up and she leaned forward. "Do tell."

"We were going to discuss what Imani's unspoken sought-out qualities in a guy are," I went on between bites of my turkey sandwich. "You know, to give Axel some hints."

"That's brilliant," she cheered as she slurped her ice tea. "I wish I could come and help you guys, but I've got a last-minute Mock UW meeting to go to."

I nodded. "That's fine. Gosh, everyone's so involved," I sighed. "Other than my advanced art class, I don't really do any extracurricular activities."

She stabbed a few bits of salad and popped them in her painted mouth. "There's nothing wrong with that," she shrugged. "We just finished our first year. You can get more involved next year if you want. You should join Mock UW with me. You'd be really good at that."

Though Kairi's been telling me how interesting and fun Mock United Worlds has been and despite how many times I've dwelled on the idea of joining next year, I only offered a noncommittal "maybe" before saying, "We were talking about Imani's student politics involvement in homeroom today and Riku almost blabbed about her job in front of Axel."

"He what?" she exclaimed. "Jeez. He's like the smartest guy in our grade."

"He has his moments."

"Yeah. So how'd Axel react?"

"If he asks anything, lie or keep mum."

"Of course. Now that _that's_ out of the way," my heart sank for the second time today when I heard the older-sister tone in her voice, "what's going on between you and Roxas?"

On days when Kairi and I spend lunch alone together, the subject is always brought up: What am I going to do about Roxas? Am I going to tell him? "Eventually" isn't a good enough answer. _When?_ I'm honestly going to wait another _year? Really?_

"Look, Nam," Kairi said, leaning forward across the table earnestly, "I understand that it's really scary to admit something so personal to someone else, even if he's your best friend…_especially _since he's your best friend. A lot can change depending on what you say." A sheepish grin tugged her cheeks. "I should know, right?"

"You were freaking out last year about telling Sora," I nodded. "Imani and I spent hours on the phone with you every weekend to talk you through your fears."

"And you guys are my heroes for that." She squeezed my hand. "I know you and Roxas are a billion times closer than I was with Sora at the time, but I think what you told me last year still rings true today. Remember what you said?"

I had to think for a moment, but soon the constantly-repeated sentence I'd said to Kairi came to mind clearer than a bell. "Sora will respect you for garnering the courage to openly admit your feelings," I murmured. "Even if he only loves you as a friend, he'll admire you for your strength and your trust in him and your friendship will transform for the better."

"Exactly," she said. "You and Roxas are no different. I know he loves you, and even if he loves you only as a friend, I think he'll love you even more for trusting him and the friendship you have with him enough to confess this secret you're keeping."

I averted my eyes from my half-eaten plate of food to her encouraging eyes, drowning in shades of aqua and teal and baby blue.

"I don't mean to rush you," she went on, "but I really, really think you should tell him soon. He deserves that from you, don't you think?"

A defeated sigh slipped from me and I smiled weakly. "Yeah."

"Who deserves what?"

I looked over my shoulder and smiled. "Hey, you."

Roxas swung a leg over the seat and plopped down, planting a kiss on my mouth with a smile. "Hey. Hey, Kairi."

Her cheeky grin made my blush flare and my stomach flutter even more. "You two are so adorable I could throw up."

Roxas rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"How was your meeting?" I asked, sliding my plate his way for him to take a bite of my sandwich.

He shrugged. "Summer training starts in three weeks. Me and Hayner were the only freshmen there and everyone was glad Seifer's gang wouldn't be returning next year."

Kairi whispered harshly, "Did you see Axel's face?"

"Yup." He groaned. "He's so going to get expelled."

"You did a good job covering the bandages," I told my cousin. "I had to really look for them."

"The wonders of makeup," she declared proudly, puffing her chest and nodding sagely.

"Did Imani say she noticed anything?" I asked Roxas.

"She's got the eyes of a hawk," he exhaled loudly, propping his head up on his elbow. "Axel kept changing the subject by asking her what extracurricular activity she was involved in besides student government and blitzball management and then Imani would dodge _that_ subject by bringing up the bandages. They'd go back and forth, back and forth…"

"Verbal hot potato," Kairi laughed. "Figures."

I nodded. "Too bad those really good observation skills skip over his obvious signs of affection."

"But that's where you, Dem, and Zexion come in!" Kairi happily replied.

"Huh?" Roxas tilted his head and quirked and eyebrow in a way that made my heart melt. "I'm lost."

"The three of us are going to brainstorm battle tactics for Axel after school today," I told him.

His face split into a wide grin. "Sweet. Mind if I tag along?"

"Do you even have to ask?" I smiled back. "Of course you can come."

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Be honest-am I not putting enough Namine and Roxas action? I feel like that's the case. I'm really trying my best to put more in, but keep me in check, please? Leave a review and let me know what you think! Thank you for reading!


	10. The Tactics Meeting

**Author's Comments: **Thanks to those who left reviews and pointed out my irking habit! Thanks also for the suggestions! I'm so sorry to say that the chapter starts out with heavy Axel/Imani, but I promise there's Roxas/Namine in here. Hope you still enjoy reading the chapter, though!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

Demyx rapped his knuckles on the tabletop three times as if he were knocking on a door. "I officially call this meeting to order!"

"Keep in mind that this _is_ a library," Zexion sighed, massaging one of his temples. "Just because Mr. Sid isn't here and the library is otherwise empty doesn't mean you can be as loud as you wish."

"I _know_ that." The junior pouted momentarily at the intern librarian before turning to me with a grin. "Ready, Miss Secretary?"

"Ready," I piped, poising my pen over my blank sheet of paper.

"So, fellow members of the Axel Battle Tactic Committee—" Roxas rolled his eyes at the tacky name, "—to start things off, I suppose we'll go around in a circle and name off possible hints that lead to ideas for Axel to try," Demyx suggested. "Who wants to go first?"

When the room fell silent for almost ten seconds, Roxas finally raised his hand. "I'll start."

"Atta boy, Rox!" Demyx clapped him on the shoulder. "Go for it!"

"_Library,_ Mr. O'Donohue."

"Erk. Sorry."

His blue eyes glanced at me for a moment, a small smile on his face. "I mentioned to Nam the other day that Imani really likes waffles," Roxas started as I jotted down the suggestion and tried not to melt at his smile. "This morning she was pretty happy because she said she had waffles for breakfast. Me and Imani and Sora were talking about our favorite foods and she mentioned strawberries and sea-salt ice cream."

"Waffles, strawberries, sea-salt ice cream," I muttered as I wrote.

"Uh…" he trailed off. "That's all I got right now."

"That's plenty!" Demyx declared. Zexion winced at his volume, curling his hand into a slightly shaking fist. "You next, Namine. Whatever you can think of!"

My hand ceased writing and I tapped the pen to my chin, my eyes lingering on the part of the tabletop near Roxas' fingertips. "Can I say things I know she _doesn't_ like?"

"Why not?" I heard Demyx shrug. "Axel doesn't seem to pick up her hints well. We might have to spell stuff out like that for him."

All of us except Zexion smiled at the truth in his words. "Okay," I nodded, beginning to write again as I talk. "She doesn't like being distracted in class—"

"I beg to differ."

I halted, looking up to blink owlishly at the library intern. "Excuse me?"

"She told me she focuses effortlessly regardless of whether another classmate is being disruptive or not." He crossed his arms and sat back in his chair smugly.

"But she complains about Axel bugging her during Algebra all the time," I protested, shooting a look at Roxas who nodded in agreement. "He's done all sorts of things to distract her."

"I'm quite certain she welcomes the distractions," he said with a smirk. "Algebra is her most hated subject. She constantly grumbled about the class last semester, and she rarely mentions being frustrated while doing her homework, as Mr. O'Donohue has informed me."

"And last semester Axel wasn't in her Algebra class," Roxas finished, a smirk growing on his face. "Ha-_ha_. I bet she doesn't even notice the change."

"Wow, I didn't know that." I smiled at the thought of Imani emerging from class in a much better mood than when she entered. "You've learned quite a bit about her, haven't you?"

"She occasionally pauses in her studies to hold a brief conversation with me," he nodded with a flip of his bangs. "I just construe based on what she shares with me."

"That's what being a psychology major does for you," Demyx laughed.

"You're a psych major?" I gaped. "I didn't know that, either! That makes sense, though. I can picture you sitting in a large leather chair with a notepad in your lap asking the patient lying down on the couch," I cleared my throat and straightened up in my chair, wiping my smile off my face and peering at the intern, "'And how do you feel about that?'"

On my other side, Roxas burst in laughter. I instantly thought of bells and sunshine (as mushy as that sounds). "You crack me up sometimes, Nam," he told me happily.

I felt like I would swell until I burst. I loved making him laugh. "What else have you come up with?" I asked Zexion so I wouldn't appear _too_ immersed in his infectious happiness.

Zexion's smirk evolved into a full-on evil grin, his visible indigo eye narrowing like the proverbial cat that had just eaten the canary. I hoped my reaction to Roxas wasn't the cause of his mirth. "She thinks about Mr. Flynn a great deal more than she suspects. We once talked about a love letter she received from a sophomore."

"WHAT?" we all shouted, causing him to wince and growl "_library_" again. "She didn't ever mention that!" I hissed, glancing at Roxas for confirmation (which he gave with a shrug).

"She told you about that?" Demyx slammed a palm on the table, excitement practically radiating off of him. "I thought I was the only one who knew!"

"She didn't _tell_ me, per say," Zexion corrected. "She began mumbling to herself about a male named Peter Pan one afternoon. I overheard her unconsciously making comparisons between Mr. Pan and Mr. Flynn."

"Peter Pan?" I repeated, my eyebrows shooting up for the third time. "Isn't he involved with Wendy Darling now?"

"Yes, yes," he waved a hand dismissively, "but that is beside the point."

The three of us leaned in closer to him. "Then what is the point?"

He in turn inched back a bit to keep his personal space. "She noticed miniscule details like Mr. Pan's handwriting and form of speech and commented how messy and childish both appeared to her compared to Mr. Flynn's."

"Interesting." We glanced at each other and smirked.

A devilish gleam brightened Zexion's visible eye. "What's more, she was concerned about how vain he appeared to her and how childish his letter sounded. I heard her declare that should a male ever wish to enter courtship with her, he must be honestly concerned about her and approach her physically to discuss such wishes."

"Ha!" Demyx punched a fist in the air. "That's Axel, all right!"

"But she's not aware that he's expressing his feelings to her," I cut in. "It sounds like he needs to be more direct with her."

"How could he possibly be more direct than he is now?" A hand reached behind his head as Roxas scratched in mild frustration. "He's practically spelling it out for her!"

I began to tap my finger on the table as I thought. Would Axel need to spell out his feelings for her _literally?_ Could the situation really reach such a level where he'd need a desperate strategy like that? Maybe there would be a more subtle, less excruciatingly obvious way…

"OOH! I just thought of a BRILLIANT idea!"

We turned to Demyx, the air thickening with apprehension. "Brilliant?" Roxas repeated nervously.

"Yeah! It's _genius!_" Demyx cried, jumping from his seat and leaning in. He eagerly waved the three of us to lean in closer before whispering secretively, "We should stage—" he paused for dramatic effect until Zexion glared at him, "—a _mugging!_"

The three of us froze.

"I'll get some of my jazz band buds to _ambush_ her," he went on excitedly. "She'll scream, 'Help! Oh help!' and then in storms—dun duh dah!—_Axel_," he jumped up to stand on his chair, one foot on the table and an arm extended before him as if pointing to the distant setting sun, "the hero who rescues her from the clutches of _completely randomly-appearing_ evil, displaying his protective slash possessive streak and indirectly declaring his undying devotion to Imani! Everyone will sigh and swoon and admire how _cool_ he is and then Imani will gaze up at him with wide eyes—" he proceeded to widen his own eyes as an example, clasping his hands together, "—the gravity of his words sinking in and stirring her heart until she finally realizes the real meaning behind his constant attention-seeking ploys! She'll see him in a different light from that moment on and fall madly in love with him! It's brilliant, I tell you! _Brilliant!_"

Several things happened after his words echoed in the empty library. First, we gaped at him for at least a minute. Second, Roxas stood up, pulled the boy down, and slammed a fist squarely on Demyx's head, smashing down a portion of his Mohawk. Third, Zexion sighed in an understandably long-suffering manner. I myself didn't know whether to laugh or not.

"_Hell_ no!" Roxas shouted as Demyx cowered in his seat and massaged his aching head. "Imani's too smart for that. She'll see right through it in no time."

"That's dangerous!" I cried. "And someone could get arrested or suspended or expelled!"

"What kind of a best friend to Imani _are_ you?"

"She doesn't like feeling vulnerable, either, you know!"

"Axel would probably screw everything up anyway!"

"Right now, Axel is the _last_ person she'd want to be vulnerable in front of—she has her pride and she harbors hidden, unconscious feelings for him, after all!"

"She's probably memorized a few Struggle techniques to use on fake muggers."

"I know you mean well, Demyx, but—"

"Stop."

The sentence sitting on the tip of my tongue faded with Zexion's command. The intern looked at us sternly, but his mouth twitched as if he was trying to suppress a smirk. "We all agree against Mr. O'Donohue's plan. There's no need to further tag-team your rejection."

"Kinda scary how you two are on the same wavelength," Demyx noted with an easy grin, seemingly unfazed at the strong opposition to his _brilliant_ plan. "Guess that just shows how compatible for each other you two are."

My jaw dropped and I thought my face would melt from the sudden heat. "W-What's _that _supposed to mean?"

"Yeah, what _is_ that supposed to mean?" Roxas asked. I couldn't find the courage to glance at his face to see how he'd reacted.

"Now, Mr. O'Donohue," Zexion sighed bemusedly, "we're here to discuss Miss Brisce and Mr. Flynn, not Miss Snow and Mr. McCartney. Let's keep to the topic, shall we?"

"We shall!" the junior chirruped, dropping the subject altogether. "Okay, so is it my turn to contribute my extensive knowledge of Imani?"

The chair next to me scraped the floor a little as Roxas scooted forward in his seat and insisted, "Wait, don't change the subj—"

"Okay, so from what I know," Demyx tapped his chin with one finger, his sky blue eyes squinting at the ceiling, "I can definitely say she's into guys who give off an air of mystery."

Clearing my throat, I asked in what I hoped sounded like a neutral, not-embarrassed-about-the-earlier-insinuation tone, "What makes you think that?"

"She used to like Riku," he answered with a shrug. "The guy _breathes_ unknown. He's like one of those Prince-Charming-type guys in the _shoujo manga_ who're gentlemanly and don't let just _anyone_ get close to them so all their fangirls swoon at their grace and worship the ground they walk on because they think they're in love with them."

I breathed a mental sigh of relief when I heard Roxas ask, "You read _shoujo manga?_"

Demyx's cheeks colored as he sputtered helplessly. Under Roxas' inquisitive (and slightly disgusted) gaze, he huffed and crossed his arms defensively. "S-Songwriting research."

Roxas arched an eyebrow. "Right."

As I wrote the word _mystery_ on my paper, I voiced my thoughts, "I'm not sure she thinks Axel is mysterious, though. He's just…unpredictable."

"Which is a _form_ of being mysterious," Demyx reasoned, his pointer finger upright to accent his position. "Imani's so used to knowing everything about everyone that she gets intrigued—"

_And frustrated,_ Roxas' shared uncertain glance with me screamed.

"—when she comes across something unexpected. You should've heard what she said—"

Another glance. _What she _ranted_—_

"—to me after her first day of middle school. She wouldn't stop talking about some redheaded kid who pissed her off like crazy with his big devilish grin and the way he always spelled words out and his constant, pointless reminders to memorize stuff."

"So what are you suggesting, then?" Zexion finally interrupted. "Since Miss Brisce seems to be blinded by her displeasure with Mr. Flynn's actions towards her, should Mr. Flynn take a more 'Prince-Charming-type' approach?"

Demyx's eyebrows shot up. "It's an idea, isn't it? It fits with the mugging idea, anyway."

"We're _not_ doing a mugging," Roxas sternly said.

"Would Axel go along with playing Prince Charming?" I wondered, the end of my pen tapping my chin again. "_Could_ he go along with that? Acting like a gentleman is so unlike him."

Roxas leaned back in his chair, his arms folding behind his head as he stretched. His words nearly passed through me as I focused on _not looking at the sliver of stomach his shirt revealed._ "He's liked Imani for the past two years. He'd be even more stupid than he already is to not consider an idea that could improve his chances with her."

Zexion blinked. "And he's already stupid because…?"

"Because he's spending several thousand munny getting needles dragged across his face—and wherever he decides to put the _other_ one he's going to get—just to win a bet over Seifer," my best friend sighed as he propped up his head on his elbow. "The idiot."

Demyx began nodding, but soon he went rigid when he looked at his cell phone. "I heard about th…Oh SHOOT! Is that the time? I'm late for rehearsal!"

"How could you lose track of something like that? The competition's this weekend!" Roxas said exasperatedly as Demyx swung his messenger bag over one shoulder and bolted for the door.

"Just for that comment, _you're_ in charge of passing on the suggestions to Axel!" he called just before bursting out of the building.

Roxas scoffed, leaning back in his chair as we watched Demyx scurry away. "Well who else was going to do it? Zexion?"

The intern librarian snorted at the rhetorical question, looking to Roxas in approval. "You're surprisingly mature for a freshman."

He shrugged. "It's 'cuz I got Nam to keep me grounded." He clapped a warm hand on my shoulder and my stomach turned to fluttery mush.

He studied the two of us for a few moments before smirking. "_Love_-ly."

Oh goodness. Just let me melt into a puddle of flustered goo.

"I suppose our meeting is adjourned," Zexion noted, the smirk soon gone as he stood up and pushed both his and Demyx's chairs in. "A word with you, please, Miss Snow?"

I blinked out of my state of embarrassment to point at myself. "Me?"

He nodded, striding to the reception desk without another glance my way. "Mr. McCartney, you may wait for Miss Snow outside the library."

"Wha? Why can't I wait in here?" Roxas demanded.

"Would you rather eavesdrop on our discussion regarding the anatomy of an obese octopus woman?" the librarian asked. I could hear his eyebrow perk up.

He processed the question in his head. "The…_eww_. _Gross._" Roxas stuck out his tickle-me-pink tongue and shuddered visibly, snatching his backpack and kicking his chair in before dashing to the door. "Make it quick, Nam."

"Okay." I waited until after he disappeared through the doors (not bothering to push down on the handlebar to silence the squeak, just like Demyx) before standing up and heading to the desk where Zexion sat. "Nice one," I laughed.

"The credit goes to you for indulging that secret dislike of Mr. McCartney's," he answered nonchalantly, typing something into his computer. "Remind me again why he harbors a strong dislike of octopi."

"He got inked in the face during a trip to the beach when we were nine," I said.

"Ah." His lips quirked upward. "A plausible explanation."

With a nod, I lean against the desk slightly and ask, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Your progress with Mr. McCartney."

My jaw dropped and my face began to burn. "Wha—You're—"

"I've been kept in the loop through sources I will not name," he said without batting an eyelash. "A _friendship_ such as the one you and Mr. McCartney share is of the most absurd and interesting type I've heard."

"I-I—Well—"

"From what I've observed in the past hour, you indeed hold hidden feelings running deeper than friendship. These feelings are _so_ deep, in fact, that they paralyze your lips and prevent you from speaking out about the abnormal exchange of _friendship_ through seemingly mutual oral contact."

"That's becau—"

"Thus, I find your predicament requires a few carefully selected possible solutions compiled by the unnamed sources and myself." The printer under his desk whined and Zexion reached below for a moment, his pale hand reappearing with a sheet of paper. "While we understood the depth of your knowledge of Mr. McCartney is unarguably unmatched, we believed a few fresh ideas for expressing your thoughts and, eventually, your feelings could never be unwelcome."

Dumbly, I pinched the paper between a few fingers and looked over the contents. The blush on my face deepened and I nearly let the paper slip out of my grasp. "N…'Namine's Infallible List of Battle Tactics'?" I read aloud in horror.

The library door opened with a loud screech, making me jump and instinctively stuff the paper into my bag. Roxas' spiky head popped in through the crack. "Are you guys almost done?" he complained. "We've still got homework to do."

"Y-Yeah, we're finished!" I nodded fervently, willing my blush to die down. I glanced over my shoulder at the silent librarian, bidding him a good night.

Zexion nodded as I scampered off, his eyes aglow with a devilish gleam. "Don't forget to pay special attention to the tentacle suckers," he said. "If push comes to shove, use ink clouds to cover up the legs."

Roxas held the door open for me as I ducked through, his skin taking on a greenish tinge. "I did _not_ need to hear that…"

* * *

**Author's Afterthoughts: **I love writing Demyx and Zexion as much as I do writing Axel. Those three are my absolute favorite characters to write. :)

And, yes, I did it. His name is Roxas McCartney. I never thought I'd do it, but I did. Pfft.

As I was reading this through, I thought of Axel saying, "I L-O-V-E Y-O-U. Got it memorized?" and proceeded to cackle at the idea of Axel actually spelling his feelings out literally. Would you like to something like that later?

Also, what do you think? Am I doing better with including more Roxas/Namine? THE NEXT CHAPTER IS STUFFED TO OVERFLOWING WITH THE PAIRING!

Please leave a review and thanks for reading!


	11. The Leery Lion

**Author's Comments:** I can't believe how many reviews I've received since I last updated! Thank you so much for your comments! Every single one of them made me smile. I've decided to update earlier than usual. Hope you like it!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. I own Imani.

* * *

The more I read the list from Zexion, the more sure my assumption of my cousin's involvement I became. I could hear her voice announcing each "battle tactic" like a commentator at a boxing match. "Ooh, look, there it is!" she'd cry. "The _Lingering_ _Touch!_"

"What's this? What's _this?_" Sora, who I'd imagined as Kairi's co-commentator (he probably was her co-conspirator, now that I think about it), would shout, leaping off his seat and gripping his headset mic. "She appears to be preparing for a _combo_, ladies and gentlemen!"

"I think you're right! Watch closely…THERE! Did you _see_ that?"

"Oh my goodness! She's doing the _Megawatt Smile!_ I _don't_ buh-_lieve_ it!"

"Could today be the day she successfully plants that seed of insight into his ever-oblivious mind, Sora?"

"I don't know, Kairi. It's too early to—OH MY GAWSH!"

A squeal. "His eyes! His eyes! They're watching her even after she's left him!"

"Quick, the timer! START THE TIMER!"

The two commentators would flick their eyes between Roxas and Kairi's stopwatch on her cell phone with bated breath until finally—

"WE HAVE A NEW RECORD, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! FOURTEEN POINT THREE SECONDS!"

I groaned, burrowing further into my covers, half-glaring at the list. How long ago had Zexion and his "unnamed sources" come up with something like this? I felt like balling it up and chucking it out my bedroom window…or paying tribute to Axel and lighting it on fire.

But Axel could've had a hand in this, too.

Instead, all I could find the heart to do was poke my head back out of the covers, stuff the paper under my bed, and switch the lights off. "I'm _never_ going to resort to anything like that," I told myself.

* * *

_Told Axel._

_ And?_

_ He said he's going to ask Demyx if he can borrow his shoujo manga._

_ Haha seriously?_

_ He also wants to borrow my kitchen after school to practice. -.-_

I stifled a laugh and texted, _Are you going to let him?_

_ I GUESS so. He says he doesn't have a waffle iron._

_ Best friends forever :p_

_ Jeez. There's not much to PRACTICE. Make the batter, pour it in, wait for it to cook. Simple._

_ Knowing him, he'll leave the batter in too long on purpose just to smell something burning._

A couple rows to my left, Roxas did his best to refrain from groaning in hopelessness.

_ PLEASE tell me you'll come over to keep me sane._

I couldn't help it. My heart fluttered and I felt a little woozy when I read those words. I had to remind myself that he was _not_ declaring that he needed me. He would have left out the "please" if he really, _really_ needed me…but his parents taught him from day one to be polite, so maybe—

"Simba! I will not tolerate sleeping in my class!"

I almost dropped my phone at Mr. Cogsworth's sudden shout. The sleepy teen with bed-hair as bad as a lion's mane sitting to my right mumbled his apology, waving a hand bashfully. The rest of the class hummed with amusement and sympathy. Really, how was it anyone's fault that Mr. Cogsworth's droning voice was sleep-inducing?

"Remember that finals are next week!" Mr. Cogsworth said, his pudgy arms crossed and his foot tapping the ground. "All those who fail the exam will suffer a significant dip in their semester grade. Be warned!"

He stared us down for a few seconds (in hopes of appearing intimidating, which _kind_ of worked) before resuming his lesson review. I shifted the phone in my lap and replied to Roxas' text: _Of course I will._

My thumb hesitated over the "send" button and I grimaced at the screen. That sounded too willing…so willing, in fact, that if I added _Anything for you, Roxas_ or even a smiley, I'd probably sound like a fangirl.

I backspaced and rewrote, _Only if I get to taste-test the waffles._

There. That sounded much better. More friend-to-friend-sounding.

"Texting in class? I thought you were too goody-two-shoes than that."

Just as I pressed the send button I cringed, darting my eyes to Simba's sleepy joking grin. "S-Shush," I whispered pathetically, unable to come up with a better answer.

"Relax," he chuckled. "I'm not gonna turn you in. I'm only bugging you because I have to stay awake."

"Are you sure you want to risk detention?" I whispered. "He's already in a bad mood. He called you by your first name."

He shrugged and propped up his head with his arm on the desk, his face towards the front of the class but his eyes gazing sideways at me. "Texting Roxas?"

My phone rumbled with a new response from my best friend and I nodded reluctantly, opening up the message and reading, _He's gonna burn the first ten batches and try to convince us he can cover up the taste with extra whipped cream._

Us? He already assumed I was coming regardless of my previously-stated condition.

Don't get hopes up. Don't get hopes up. Don't…too late.

"Y'know, I've always been curious," Simba yawned quietly, "what's the deal between you two? Are you guys going out?"

Careful to smooth out the waver I felt tickling my throat, I answered softly while texting back, "We're not. Why?"

_I SUPPOSE he'll need a female's opinion handy to tell him straight._

He hissed, "You're _not?_ But you're kissing!"

I told him the same explanation I'd used for everyone else who had questioned the relationship I had with Roxas: "It's how we express our close friendship. Kind of like a secret handshake, if you will."

Simba eyed me suspiciously—like everyone else who had questioned—and muttered, "Whatever you say…"

_:) Meet you and Ax after school then. We can study at my place._

"Have you ever _thought_ of starting a serious relationship with him?"

Numbly I pressed the "send" button (_Ok. I'll tell my parents_) as I looked to him, completely stunned. In all the times I'd been asked about Roxas, no one had ever asked me _that_. "Uh…" I shrugged, frowning inwardly. "It…might have crossed my mind a few times…"

He nodded, his mane waving with the movement. "You'd have the best chance at it."

My forehead wrinkled at the strange words. "The best chance?"

His lips curled into a smile as he lifted a finger and pointed to random students in the room, counting off, "One, two…three…four, five…six."

I blinked, scanning my eyes over the individuals he picked out before it finally hit me: they were all _girls_.

"In the half-hour since class started, those six girls have stolen glances at Roxas at least twice," Simba stated, "some with more finesse than others, given their seating positions."

I stared at him in awe while I felt my heart clench and my stomach churn unpleasantly.

"Predator instincts." He grinned like a cat that just drank a saucer of cream. "Gotta be observant and stealthy to stay one step ahead."

"W-What does that have to do with me?" I stuttered.

He shrugged again. "I dunno. I just think you and him would be best suited for each other, given that you're best friends and kissing already."

"So…you're just telling me your personal opinion?" I asked, slipping my phone back into my bag.

"Yeah." He adjusted his head's position on the heel of his palm. "Just my personal opinion."

"Oh…okay." I smiled hesitantly.

"While we're at it, though," he leaned in a little, whispering conspiratorially, "it's also my personal opinion that if either of you started going out, some serious heart-breakage would happen."

If either of us started going out? With each other or with different people?

"Simba!" Mr. Cogsworth boomed before I could voice my questions. "Name three major events that occurred in Ivalice during the Age of the Gods."

"The Thousand Years War occurred, resulting in the Occuria banishing the twelve Espers to the dark reaches of Ivalice; Feolthanos the Eternal brought his people to the Purvama of Lemures to hide from the Occuria; and the Pharos at Ridorana was built," Simba answered without missing a beat.

The class began to giggle at the teacher's gaping jaw and the shock written on his face. My ears picked out Roxas' snort amongst the laughter. "C-Correct," Mr. Cogsworth harrumphed. "Very well. Ahem. Moving on…"

The moment the teacher looked down to his textbook, Simba sighed in relief. "Nala drilled that into my head the other day," he explained.

I giggled. "Sounds like something she'd do."

Just then the bell rang and the class erupted. All of us hurried to stuff our things into our bags as Mr. Cogsworth shouted reminders of studying for that final next week.

When I finished packing, I looked up to see Roxas standing next to me, leaning over with a hand propping himself up on my desk. "See you at lunch, Nam," he said, swooping in for a kiss.

My cheeks flared but I didn't close my eyes…

And I should have.

My forehead wrinkled as I stared at Roxas' closed eyes confusedly. I found I had _more _than enough time than I usually did. His lips stayed on mine for at least _ten_ seconds. And did he just _sigh?_

He finally backed away, shooting me a grin and aiming a narrowed-eyed-glance (a _glare? _That smile looked a little tight, too) to my right before striding out of the room.

Dazedly my head turned to my right to see a big smile growing on Simba's face and his eyebrows rising higher and higher until they nearly disappeared behind his short bangs. "Whoa," he laughed, not at all daunted by the cold look he just got from Roxas. "That was…uh…"

"S-Secret handshake," I told him…while trying to calm my nerves and slow down my heart…and while trying to convince myself that the extra seconds didn't mean anything. Neither did the sigh. Or the glare.

"Right. A ten-second long _secret handshake_ finished off with a glare from one best friend directed at the person who last talked with the other best friend." He nodded sagely with a smirk as he got up and stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets. "I suppose the _blush_ is the cherry on top, huh? You match the color perfectly."

"S-Shut up already!" I wail, following him out the door of the classroom as he threw back his head and roared in laughter.

* * *

Kairi gasped.

"Don't squeal," I quickly commanded her. "Stick the fork in your mouth and chew."

Mechanically her hand moved the shepherd's pie-laden fork to her lips and she engulfed the food through her ever-growing smile, her eyes squinting in excitement. I could almost hear the "Oh my God! Oh my _God!_" she was repeating in her head.

Behind Kairi I saw Imani rush to our table and slide into the space next to my cousin, her eyes wide and the strap of her bag hanging off her shoulder. "What? What'd I miss?" she cried.

I groaned. I didn't want to say it out loud _again_.

Thankfully (or not), Kairi swallowed her food and waved Imani closer to her so she could whisper slash squeal (I _told_ her not to squeal) what she missed into her ear. The bits and pieces I caught made me blush all over again, but the brightening in Imani's eyes made me want to faint.

"So _that's_ why he was acting weird in third period," she mused, sitting back and tilting her head thoughtfully.

Clearing my throat and breathing deeply in hopes of making the blush disappear, I asked her, "What do you mean?"

"He was a bit snappish." Imani hoisted her bag strap over her head and let the thing fall to the ground. "And restless. You know how he usually sleeps in English?"

"Yeah." I couldn't help smiling at the thought of Roxas burying his face into _Romeo and Juliet_ to cover up his nap.

Imani arched an eyebrow. "Today he was drumming his fingers on his desk and staring so intently at his book that he looked like he was trying to burn holes through the pages. It was pretty weird."

"Do you know what this _means_, Nam?" Kairi exploded, waving her hands wildly and bouncing in her seat. "It means he might have special, hidden feelings for you!"

"What?" I squeaked, the color rushing back to my cheeks all over again.

"Shhh!" Imani hushed us, kissing her upright pointer finger and shooting glares at each of us.

Kairi and I shrank and glanced at her apologetically. "I'm right, though!" my cousin insisted.

"We can't jump to conclusions," Imani hissed. "He could've been stressed about something completely different."

"But Nam said he seemed perfectly normal before class ended," Kairi pointed out. "He suddenly got all snappy because he saw Namine and Simba talking so casually."

"But he's never become upset when Axel or Riku or Sora or any other guy talks with her casually," Imani countered. "And everyone knows Simba's not interested in Namine."

My cousin shook her head. "Roxas and Simba aren't close enough to recognize things like that about each other."

"But…" she trailed off, running the comeback in her head. She finally sighed and backed down. "T…Touché_BUT_ it's too early to say where this strange change of attitude from Roxas will lead."

"Let's be optimistic, then!" Kairi said. "We'll hope for the best and take this as encouragement for Namine to set it straight to Roxas."

"Okay." Imani nodded.

"Hey!" I sat up straight and nearly knocked over my water bottle. "You're teaming up against me?"

"Teaming up _against_ you?" Imani repeated, glancing at Kairi bemusedly. "We're teaming up _with_ you, Nam. We want the best for you and Roxas. You know that."

"The _absolute_ best!" Kairi chimed in.

They both laughed as I groaned in despair. How was it that the subject of my telling Roxas my feelings _always_ managed to come up?

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **So...yeah! What's this weirdness from Roxas mean? Oh, the mystery!

Thank you for reading! Please leave a review!


	12. The Therapy Session

**Author's Comments:** Oh em gee, is it Friday already? This week flew by so quickly! Here's your dose of HEAVY Roxas/Namine. And AXEL COOKS. Hope you like it!**  
**

**Disclaimer: ** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Chef Emeril Lagasse. I own Imani.

* * *

"Are you okay, Roxas?"

He flinched, glancing at me over his _Romeo and Juliet_ book on the other side of the couch. "Yeah," he answered with a just-slapped-on smile. "Why?"

"I don't know," I shrugged as I set down my pencil and shifted in my seat to study him better. "Imani said you were acting strange in English today and you've been a little on-edge since we left school."

The slapped-on smile fell like a sticky note with un-sticky glue. He dog-eared the page he was reading and threw the book down next to him, raking a hand through his spikes tiredly. "Just can't get a break from Imani, huh…?"

"What's wrong?" I asked, my fingers tugging the clicker of my pencil absently.

"I don't know," he confessed with a shake of his head. "I just…I can't concentrate. I feel like I'm _distracted_ by something…but I don't know what."

When he uttered "distracted," I instantly thought back to last week's movie night…especially the _distraction_ he'd given me.

_"Something that'll make you relax a little."_

He kissed me. No, he _made out_ with me. Gah, no, _we_ made out.

I knew I was turning red when the thought of bringing back that idea popped into my head. After all, he _did _say—

_ "I don't know about you but…kissing feels _nice_ that way…I _relax_ when we kiss and I feel like I can handle _anything_ afterwards…"_

I glanced at him, secretly breathing a sigh of relief to see he wasn't witnessing my tomato impression. He stared at the patch of worn-away carpet from the time we (Axel) used a lighter from Roxas' dad's tool closet to see how close we could get the flame before the floor began to burn. He must have been remembering the same thing since a shadow of his beautiful smile tugged his lips.

I wanted to see more of that smile. I didn't like how tight his jaw appeared or how wrinkled his brow was. His troubled, distant stare was still adorable, but…

I nearly moaned aloud. But it'd be the first time I'd initiate a kiss with him! Would that be weird? What would he think? Would he start to wonder about my feelings for him?

I glanced at him once more. He seemed really stressed, and while I couldn't put my finger on what it was that was stressing him out, I knew that a frustrated, overall unhappy Roxas was certainly worse than an emotionally-curious-about-Namine Roxas.

…or was it?

"Don't worry about it, Nam," Roxas assured me, his arm hanging over the edge of the couch seat to pick up his thrown-down book. "You should worry more about those exams next week."

But I didn't want to worry about exams. Roxas' wellbeing was much more important. At least, that was what my heart and my mouth seemed to decide for me.

"D-Do—" I paused, breathing slowly for a moment or two to calm my nerves, "Do you want…"

He looked up from his task, his hand less than an inch from the book cover. "Do I want…what?"

"A-A…" I swallowed thickly, forcing down my scream of terror at the words that threatened to explode in my throat. "A k…"

He nodded slowly. "A…?"

I mumbled the last word, hoping he understood what I said.

He blinked. "What was that?"

I wanted to melt into the couch and disappear. "Never mind," I rushed out.

"No, not 'never mind.'" Roxas scooted closer—oh gosh, he scooted closer! He saw my tomato impression, I just knew it! "Tell me."

There were times when I really didn't like that Roxas could be as stubborn as Imani was about Axel or as Kairi was about my openness with Roxas. This was such a time.

Cursing his determination, I cleared my throat and forced my tongue to reply. "A k-kis—"

"BAM!"

I jumped at the sudden shout coming from the kitchen.

"Behold the awesomeness of the next Chef Emeril! BAM! BAM!"

"Crap," Roxas swore, leaping from the couch and racing to the kitchen. "Axel, you'd better not be making a mess in there!"

I sat frozen where Roxas had left me, my back pressed into the armrest and my cheeks colored a shade of embarrassed burgundy. Axel whooped and Roxas shouted and cursed while I breathed deeply, completely relieved at not having to answer the question and a little disappointed at not being able to help him relax without raising suspicion.

…Fine. _Very_ disappointed.

"You're still making the batter?"

"You can't rush art. Elementary, my dear Roxas."

"It's been an hour and you're not even done beating the eggs!"

"It's only the third step towards a happier Imani! I can't mess this up!"

"How the _hell_ can you screw up _beating eggs?_"

The definite edge in Roxas' voice brought me back to the realization that he was still stressed about something. Prying myself from my frozen position, I tiptoed to the kitchen and peeked through the doorway. My jaw dropped.

The small kitchen resembled the aftermath of a food fight. White powder (probably cake batter and baking soda and salt and whatever else Axel had "bammed" into the dry mixture) spattered nearly every inch of the counter surface. Egg shells lay shattered near the recipe sheet I printed out earlier, some of the egg whites dripping onto the paper. Next to the recipe sheet (and the eggshells) sat a few mixing bowls, random whisks and spatulas and spoons, and boxes and bags and cartons of the waffle ingredients.

Axel, his slightly pouting face masked in a thin layer of flour, began to scuffle towards me when he noticed my presence. "Nah-mih-nay," he whined, "Roxy is yelling at me."

"Don't you dare call me that, Axel," Roxas growled, stomping over and standing between me and the redhead, his arms crossed. "You've gotta start taking this seriously, Ax. If you won't, then you're letting this chance to get on Imani's good side fly out the window."

The pout disappeared instantly from Axel's face, leaving behind a serious frown. "I'm taking this _very_ seriously, Roxas."

"Oh really?" he scoffed, but the edge in his voice definitely softened upon the redhead's sudden attitude change. He almost stuttered, too.

Axel neither nodded nor shook his head, choosing instead to study Roxas' glare. "You know what?" he finally said. "You seem irritated about something."

Roxas grumbled, "Do I, Sherlock?"

He glanced past Roxas to me, a devious light sparking in his green eyes and his frown gently erased from his face. "I think you need to calm down with Namine."

"W-What?" both of us stuttered.

"Let's make a deal," Axel proposed, waving around the whisk in his hand. "I'll finish these waffles in the next hour if you and Namine stay out of the kitchen. No interrupting my Chef Emeril moments and no barging in to yell at my _seemingly_-slow progress. It'll be your responsibility to come into the kitchen at…" he glanced at the Big Ben mini replica clock hanging on the wall, "five-thirty. That way you can calm down," he pointed to Roxas before pointing to me, "and you can _help_ him calm down. Deal?"

Roxas hesitated before peering over his shoulder at me, his eyes still shadowed in slight frustration. I gave a slight _Those-conditions-don't-sound-too-bad_ shrug, despite wondering what Axel was up to and what that glint in his eyes meant.

"Deal," Roxas muttered reluctantly.

"Great!" Axel ushered the two of us out of the room. "Five-thirty! No earlier! Have fun!"

It took me a few moments but once my brain processed Axel's strange words, I swallowed down the groan of despair pushing past my lips.

"Oh, so what were you going to ask me?"

I took another swallow, this time coupled with a clearing of my throat. "Huh?" I asked in what I hoped sounded like an _I-don't-have-any-idea-what-you're-referring-to_ tone.

"You asked me if I wanted something before Axel interrupted," he elaborated, shooting a glare towards the empty kitchen doorway. "What was it?"

My cheeks tingled as I felt my blush creep back to my face. "O-Oh," I laughed nervously. "Right. Uh…Yeah, that. Well. Um…"

"…ss…"

Roxas leaned closer. "What'd you say?"

For a moment, I wondered what that ss-ing was, but my head shook frantically in a final-resort attempt to shoot down the subject and bury it under six feet into the ground. "I-I didn't—"

"_Kiss!_"

Tearing my gaze from those blue imploring eyes towards the sound, I felt like grabbing my pencil and stabbing myself in the head to rid my mind of the humiliation. Axel was peeking from the doorway, a hand cupped around his mouth to whisper like a line-prompter.

"Kiss! Do you want a _kiss?_" the redhead hissed, puckering up his lips and making obscene smacking noises.

My blush grew darker than his hair. "Y-You!" I shrieked, pointing at him. "Go make your waffles or else I'm telling Imani about your tattoos!"

He only waved the cupped hand. "Fine, fine," he sighed without a hint of remorse. With a wink my way he retreated back into the kitchen.

Roxas, who had been silently watching the exchange, slowly turned back to me and my red face. "A kiss?" he repeated, his eyebrows almost merging with his hairline. "You were asking if I wanted a kiss?"

Excuses—completely _true_ excuses—flooded past my lips as I darted my eyes around the room to look at anything but him. "W-Well only because you kissed me before when I was feeling out of it and you said kissing helps you relax and you feel loads better after and I thought maybe a kiss would make you feel better this time so—"

"Nam."

My tongue skidded to a halt. "Y-Yes?"

"Look at me."

Peeling my eyes from the corner of the coffee table, I inched them slowly to Roxas' forehead.

"_Look_ at me."

I swallowed, finally locking eyes with him. He was staring at me with a strange smile on his face. "You remembered," he simply said.

Fighting to retain my cool, I swallowed thickly and furrowed my brow. "Of…Of course I did," I answered, my lower lip sticking out in a pout. "Who would I be if I didn't remember something important like that?"

_Especially with the demonstration,_ I added to myself.

"Ah" was all he said, nodding slowly but never looking away from me.

We stood in the middle of the living room for almost a minute, staring at each other, before I walked past him and sat back in my seat on the couch. "Well?" I couldn't help asking, curling my legs beneath me. "D-Do you want a…?"

Roxas watched me, that smile flickering and his arm on the verge of swinging out of awkwardness…or nervousness? "Yeah." He eased himself down on the other side of the couch, one leg tucked beneath him and an arm resting along the back.

I gulped when I realized he was waiting for _me _to start the kiss. Breathing in deeply, I got up from my spot and scooted closer until our knees touched. I had to swallow down my nerves a second time as I raised my hands to place them on each of his broad, lightly toned shoulders. The courage to look Roxas in the eye escaped me so I focused on his soft lips instead as I inched closer and closer…

"You sure you're okay with this?" Roxas breathed.

I paused. Suddenly the pounding of my heart and the twisting of my stomach and the swirling in my brain crashed onto my senses. "Anything for you," I whispered, allowing a little emotion to lace my words before moving in to capture his mouth completely.

A big, big mistake. Not the kiss, but the drop of emotion.

As Roxas hummed in content, I found myself fighting to keep the rest of my feelings in control as I kissed him. Rather than relaxing like I kind of did a week and a half ago, I couldn't help stressing out. On top of all the sensations throughout my body, countless questions and reminders ran through my head: I couldn't enjoy this _too_ much. Was I kissing him too deeply? I wasn't straddling his leg, was I? Maybe I should have moved back…or maybe I should have just stopped completely? How soon?

But it felt really, really nice…

I started to panic when I felt his arms wrap around my waist and pull me closer to him. I knew for certain I was straddling him now. Another few inches and I'd probably be pressed flush against him.

But hey, he seemed to be relaxing, didn't he? Those sighs and hums sounded so.

Finally, I managed to pull my face away to catch my breath. My forehead rested against his, our breaths intermingling and our arms still wrapped around each other. I vaguely wondered when I'd encircled his neck with my arms.

"Nam…" he murmured between breaths. "_Nam…_"

"F-Feeling better?" I asked, not daring to open my eyes.

His arms tightened around me. "N…Not yet…"

I couldn't answer. He pressed his lips against mine.

* * *

**Author's Afterthoughts: **So. I hate writing kissing scenes. Especially the ones where they make-out big time. Ugh, it's just so embarrassing! It's like I'm scripting their spontaneous moments of affection! I can't get around it, though, because then you readers won't have any idea what's going on! Ack!

Axel imitating Chef Emeril makes it all worth it. Kinda.

Okay, I'm done with my mini-rant. Honestly, I totally forgot what I wrote for this chapter; this whole week my mind's been filled with _Kismet Scribe, Kismet Scribe, Kismet Scribe_ so I'm a little disoriented with _Benefriends_ at the moment. I'll continue updating for this story while I work on my revisions for _The Kismet Scribe_ (which I encourage you to check out if you've got time to spare this summer; the ones with the EDITED [date] at the top have gone through revisions)!

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!


	13. The Number Three

**Author's Comments: **I couldn't wait until tomorrow to put this chapter up. I read it over for the first time in a week or so a few days ago and I laughed out loud. I really like how this chapter came out. Hope you do too!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

I pulled the phone away from my ear a split-second before Kairi screeched, "You _what?_"

"Don't make me say it again," I moaned, throwing my head against my pillow.

"How long?" her crinkled voice demanded.

Deeming it safe to place the phone near my ear again, I started playing with the corner of my blanket as I told her, "Just until Axel started imitating Chef Emeril again."

She groaned. "Why that little—"

"He probably did it to interrupt us without walking in," I cut in. "We were five minutes late."

A pause, and then, "Oh. Axel's form of tact, I suppose."

"But anyway, the waffles actually tasted really, really good."

"That's nice to know, but you know I didn't call to talk about Axel's new strategy." She huffed. "Did Roxas say anything?"

"No, but he seemed much more relaxed." I thought back to his easy smile as he shoveled the waffles into his mouth. "As far as I know, he's still dense."

Another pause. A much longer one. One that made my nerves tingle slightly.

"Kairi?" I finally said. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah," she chirruped as if she'd never paused at all. "How long did you say you two made out?"

I didn't bother holding my blush back. "A-About an hour—"

"An _hour?_"

"We t-took breaks every fifteen minutes or so!"

She paused again. More than three pauses on Kairi's part during a conversation was never a good sign…I think. She'd never paused so often before. It was making me fidget.

"What are you thinking about?" I wanted to know.

"Nothing," she said too quickly. "You know what? I think I should go. I gotta study."

I blinked. "O-Okay…"

"See you tomorrow. Love you!" With that she hung up, leaving me wondering what those pauses were for. Deciding the wondering could wait, I set the phone aside and picked up my textbook again.

* * *

"We're going to the beach at least once a week this summer!" Sora declared, raising his fork and nearly standing up from his seat.

Roxas shook his head with a sigh. "We can't afford to go to the beach once a week."

"Sure we can!" the spiky brunet insisted before stabbing his fried chicken. "As long as we bring snacks from home, we just have to worry about bus fare."

"But getting snacks from the stalls is one of the best parts of going to the beach!" Hayner protested. He and Olette and Pence joined us for lunch today. "Watermelon and corn and cotton candy!"

"We don't have to buy that stuff every time we go," Olette shrugged. "Maybe we could buy those every few weeks."

"We need to go shopping for new swimsuits!" Kairi squealed, earning a nod from Olette and a widened grin from Sora. "There's a sale going on at Atlantica. We should go this weekend!"

Sora punched the air. "Yeah!"

I smiled at Kairi and Sora's similar enthusiasms. No wonder they ended up together. "We still need to worry about exams first before summer even starts," I reminded them, sipping from my water bottle.

Immediately the couple deflated into their seats, poking their food. "Way to be a killjoy, Namine," Kairi moaned.

Roxas came to my defense, "She's just being honest."

I thought I saw something flicker in Kairi's eyes. She glanced to her right at Sora, who gave a subtle nod. "Ugh, now my whole day is ruined because of those exams," my cousin whined. "Just when I pictured myself drifting off to sleep under the warm sun…"

"And playing blitzball all day," Sora sighed dreamily.

"_After_ exams are over," Roxas deadpanned.

"Are you siding with Namine now?" Kairi gasped as Sora slapped his cheeks in an aghast fashion. "Are you intent on sabotaging our summer fantasies?"

"We're not sabotaging your summer fantasies," Roxas muttered, his fingers tightening around his fork. "We're just being reasonable."

"She's cast you under her spell, I just know it!" Sora cried, pointing an accusing finger at us. Kairi proceeded to slap her own cheeks the same way Sora just did. "Namine's a _witch!_"

The poor fork cracked under his grip. "_What_ did you just call her?" he growled.

"You heard me!" Sora puffed out his chest. From the corner of my eye I saw Olette, Hayner, and Pence watch with wide eyes, no longer focused on eating.

The air suddenly turned colder as Roxas hissed, "I _dare_ you to say it again."

He leaned forward, hiding a flinch at the tone Roxas used. "A _witch_."

Palms slammed onto the table and Roxas rose from his seat, reaching across the table towards the brunet. "You punk—"

"Wait!" I grabbed his shoulder, shooting a confused look at Sora and Kairi for their weird behavior. Neither of them _ever _called someone something bad. "Roxas, it's fine," I said to him.

Angry blue eyes landed on mine. "It's _not_ fine. He's calling you a witch!"

Warmth spread in my chest. He was defending me…even if the issue was minor. A joke, really. This had to be a joke. Sora calling me a witch? Ha! Ha ha!

Plastering a smile on, I pleaded, "Don't take it seriously. He's only kidding." I turned to Sora, eyeing him questioningly. "Right?"

His brown spikes swayed furiously as he nodded…and his eyebrows shot up three times. "Of course I am. Namine's not a witch." He raised his eyebrows three times again, looking pointedly at me.

I quirked my own eyebrow. What was that?

Roxas stared at me, his eyes searching mine for further reason to let out his anger. When he didn't find any, he sighed, sinking back into his seat and stabbing his chicken with his head bowed.

To say the past minute was weird would be an understatement. I haven't been called any names since elementary school, but even then Roxas hadn't stood up for me so fiercely like he did just now. He never picked fights—he was always conflict-avoidant unless the argument got really ugly. He never directed his anger at _Sora,_ either.

Speaking of which…I turned to Sora again when I saw something fluttering in my peripheral. Kairi had been waving her hand for my attention. "Three!" she mouthed, holding up three thin fingers. Sora did that thing with his eyebrows again.

Three? Three what?

Shaking my head and deciding to ask them about it later (they didn't seem to want Roxas to notice them), I craned my neck to look at Hayner, Olette, and Pence. "So what else should we do over the summer?" I asked.

The three glanced at each other, seeming to relax a little. Pence resumed eating. "How about going to the carnival?" Olette suggested. "The fireworks are always really pretty."

"Oh, that'd be so romantic!" Kairi swooned, waggling three fingers at me again.

Sometimes, I really didn't understand my cousin. Or her boyfriend. No wonder they ended up together.

"We should have Struggle contests at the park," Hayner said with a grin, elbowing Roxas. "It'll help prepare us for the season this fall, right?"

Roxas allowed a slight smirk though his gaze never left his plate. "Yeah."

Kairi's three upright fingers hovered inches from my face. Sora looked like he was giving himself a headache from all the eyebrow-raising.

I sighed, realizing that their weird behavior couldn't wait. "Kairi, wanna come with me to grab some ice cream?" I asked, rising from my seat.

"Sure!" she answered, taking account of the various calls of "Grab me one!" from Sora, Pence, and Hayner. Once she grabbed her wallet, she linked her arm in mine and we headed for the vendor.

Once I deemed it safe, I hissed, "What's 'three' mean?"

Kairi shot me a mild glare with a sigh. "The third item on the list, of course."

"The list?"

"Yeah. 'Namine's Infallible List of Battle Tactics.'"

My eyes widened. "So it _was_ you!"

"Did you even _look_ at the list?" she asked accusingly. "Sora and I worked hard on that. We had to convince the librarian to help us, too."

I shook my head. "I knew it."

"Anyway, number three is the _Comforting Smile,_ not to be mixed up with the _Megawatt Smile_. That's number one." she stated, letting go of my arm to fish around in her wallet for munny. "If you gave Roxas a comforting smile in the midst of his rage, he'd calm down and wonder about the effect you have on him."

"What makes you so sure?" I asked.

"I'm not," she shrugged as she fed the machine, "but it's worth a try, right? You're not blatantly confessing anything with this."

I let a smile creep onto my face. She had a point.

The two of us carried the seven packages of ice cream back with us to the table. "The time for the _Comforting Smile_ has probably passed," Kairi said to me before we arrived. "Try the _Megawatt Smile._"

"What's the difference?"

"The feeling behind it, of course. Just smile at him."

We handed out the ice cream to everyone, earning whoops of joy and thanks. As I sat next to Roxas again (who was still brooding), I nudged his hand with the package to get his attention. "Here."

He glanced up, his bangs covering his blue eyes a little.

I smiled…and hoped I was doing the _Megawatt_.

He blinked, his own lips curving into a beautiful smile, one that could melt me if I wasn't careful. "Thanks." His head lifted further as he took the ice cream from me and started opening it up.

I glanced at Kairi across the table. She gave a thumbs-up.

What a weird lunch period.

* * *

I had to laugh at the way Roxas eyed the back of my easel from where he had taken a seat after stepping inside the empty art room. "You sure you don't want to see it?" I asked, placing my hand on one hip while I brought the paintbrush I held with the other hand away from the canvas. "I didn't put Ursula in it, I promise."

"Then why'd you talk to Zexion about it the other day?" he asked warily. He looked about ready to bolt for the door.

"Just to get information to play with ideas," I shrugged. "It's only Ariel and Prince Eric. No octopuses."

He took in a deep breath, placing his books down onto the nearest stool with his exhale. Ever so cautiously he stood and stepped towards me, craning his neck around the canvas to see my painting. When he saw only the redheaded, speechless mermaid gazing dreamily at her charming prince during their boat ride in the moonlight, he sighed in relief.

"No matter how much I brainstormed, I couldn't paint Ursula without having to give the picture a sinister feel," I told him as he stood relaxed next to me, his hands in his pockets and his eyes roaming the canvas. "I didn't want that."

"What kind of a feel did you want with this?" he asked quietly as if his voice would break the mood the couple in the painting was in. "And why'd you decide to do _The Little Mermaid_? You could've chosen any Disney movie for this project, right?"

My heart fluttered slightly. He always liked looking at my art and asking about the inspiration behind it, but I always found myself growing a little giddy whenever he did so. Not even my parents paid much mind to the behind-the-scene details like Roxas did. It made me feel a little special that he was interested in the artist as much as he was in the art.

"I don't know, really," I confessed. "I just…I love how Ariel had the courage to give up something really important to her in order to take a chance with Prince Eric, even if she wasn't certain whether he'd return her feelings. I mean, she didn't really think clearly before taking up Ursula's offer…" I sighed. "But she did everything she could to earn his love. Her actions spoke volumes more of her love for him than any spoken sentence could express. She _showed_ him she loved him…and this moment—" I nodded my head to my painting, "—was when Prince Eric finally fell and had that urge to show _his_ love to _her_…"

I trailed off into comfortable silence, taking in the deep cobalt tones of the water beneath the boat, the dark shadowy trees framing the pale moon, the mere inches his lips hovered from hers…

I smiled. "Beautiful."

"Yeah," Roxas breathed next to me. "Beautiful."

With a glance at my paintbrush, I sighed as I turned to him. "Of course, it's not finished yet—"

Blue eyes locked with mine—dazed, unfocused blue eyes…yet they appeared sharp and intense at the same time…Time stopped and I couldn't tear my own eyes away from his…I felt like I was drowning.

"Roxas…" I barely whispered, not daring to speak in full-voice.

He didn't answer. Instead, he took a step forward, leaning in with his soft lips parted. His breath mingled with mine pleasantly. My heart sped up frantically and my insides turned to mush. Only an inch left…

**Clack cl-clack-cl-clack.**

The spell broke. I tore my eyes away to find the source of the sound—my dropped paintbrush. In the midst of its fall, the bristles streaked my white right shoe and his black left sneaker with azure paint.

"Oh my gosh!" I clapped a hand over my mouth and bent down to pick up the brush. "I'm so sorry!"

"Huh?" Roxas murmured softly. He blinked as if waking up from a dream, looking down. Once he saw the paint, he seemed to wake up completely. "Ack! My shoe!"

"I'm really sorry!" I cried. I knew he _loved_ those shoes…and I ruined them.

He sighed in defeat and scratched the back of his head. "N-Nah, don't worry about it," he said with a slight laugh. "It's only a shoe."

When I garnered the courage to look at him, I breathed an inward sigh of relief to see a lack of anger on his face. I didn't want a repeat performance of the lunch incident. "I-I'll make it up to you," I told him, quickly turning and taking my palette and brush to the sink at the other side of the room…to hide my blush. "I'll treat you to ice cream or something."

"We just had ice cream at lunch today," he reminded me with another slight laugh, this time less forced.

"You can never have too much ice cream," I said, trying to laugh as I rinsed everything. "Just let me pack up and we can head home."

I bustled around the room, putting my canvas and easel against a wall and grabbing my things. "You know," Roxas said as we walked out of the room, lifting his left foot and studying the streak, "I think I like it. Now we're matching."

I lifted my right foot to compare it to his. "Yeah. I like it, too," I decided with a smile.

Neither of us brought up the moment before the paintbrush fell. I vowed silently not to mention it to Kairi, either.

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!


	14. The Hidden Alarms

**Author's Comments: **Oh. My. Gosh. I finished it. I finished the last chapter of this story. AHHHHHH!

No, _this _chapter isn't the last. After this chapter you can expect five more chapters. Would you prefer I upload them all at once or would you like them uploaded throughout the next few weeks? I'll go either way as long as you leave behind reviews.

Thanks for waiting and for all your lovely comments and words of support. Here we go!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts, any Final Fantasy VII characters mentioned, any lyrics to Paramore's "Emergency", Bowling 4 Soup's "Punk Rock 101", or the concept of a Battle of the Bands competition. I own Imani.

* * *

I always try. I really do. I feel like I only succeed one out of five times, though.

"Nam, you've got the tickets, right?"

I focused on fishing through my wallet for the dark slip of paper. "I've only got mine."

"Huh." Roxas reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his own wallet. "I can't find mine…"

"Maybe it's in your room?"

"Maybe. Lemme check."

He leapt off the couch and darted down the hall. Once I heard the clacking of his opened door, I breathed a sigh of relief…temporary relief, anyway, until he returned. His light pinstriped collared shirt would be a little rumpled from his fervent search, but I imagined he'd breathlessly drag his feet back into the living room, his ticket pinched between two fingers and a charming smile on his face. I knew for a fact that I'd feel the breath in my lungs catch and my heart speed up a couple hundred miles a minute.

I try not to stare whenever he's around, regardless of the state of his clothes. I try to avoid having to look at him without seeming like I'm bothered by something he might have done and without having to explain that nothing was wrong. Being in love with one's best friend with whom she spends the majority of the day really made the tasks more complicated.

"Found it!" he declared, waving his ticket like a victory flag before filing it away carefully in his wallet. "It almost went into the wash with some other jeans."

Before I could laugh or respond (or stare or try to breathe normally), Reno's camaro rumbled into the driveway, the bass of his stereo pumping the evening air. "We're going!" Roxas called to his parents somewhere in the house.

"Be safe!" his mother called. "No drinking! Don't accept anything from strangers! Tell the bar staff if anyone is harassing you!"

"_Bye_, Mom!" Roxas groaned and yelled at the same time as he held the door open for me.

Shielding my eyes from the harsh glint of the setting sun bouncing off the shiny camaro's body, I walked as best I could in the one-inch heels I strapped my feet into. Soon I heard Roxas following close behind, his hand positioned near the small of my back in case I fell. "I'm fine," I told him, though slightly (fine—_more_ than slightly) flattered at the gesture.

"Just being careful," he murmured back without removing his hand.

I smiled softly and agreed that yes, we could do without a repeat performance of the middle school high-heel relay race.

Roxas shuddered silently and I corrected myself: _The middle school _all-male _high-heel relay race._

"Aw, you two look like an old couple, yo."

I was glad the sun was setting and that my back was turned to Roxas when I felt the blush creep onto my face. "Hi, Reno. Hi, Axel."

"Hey." Reno cheerily waved through the rolled-down passenger window while Axel grunted in reply. "Ready to see those wannabe bands get _owned?_"

"Hell yeah!" Roxas laughed as he slid into the car after me. "Melodious Nocturne for the win!"

Reno howled, revving up the car and gunning to the main road. "I am gonna kick Cloud's ass if they don't win, yo!"

"You and me both! He's no longer my cousin if he screws up on stage!"

"Hn."

I giggled at Axel's less-than-ecstatic input. "You okay, Axel?"

He gave a halfhearted shrug and I turned to look at Reno through the rearview mirror. "He's just sour 'cuz his girl ain't gonna be there tonight, yo," the older redhead answered. "Something about getting a really good deal at that fancy restaurant at Hotel Agrabah and going to dinner with her family."

"Ah." I nodded in understanding, reaching across Roxas to pat Axel's bony bare shoulder. "You look nice, though. She would've been tripping over her feet if she saw you."

"Yeah," Roxas chimed in, "and Seifer's gonna freak when he sees your face."

A corner of Axel's mouth curved at upwards at the thought. He turned in his seat and I finally got a good look at the tattoos he had on his cheeks—dark upside-down triangles that almost resembled teardrops. "_Redemption_," he purred, his lips curling back into a feral grin.

I blinked and my stomach flipped. If Imani didn't melt after hearing that tone of voice he used and seeing that grin (along with his whole appearance in general), I'd have to conclude she was inhuman. Or blind…which I highly, highly doubted, considering she always seems to spot my twiddling fingers when I try to lie to her, no matter how tightly I squeezed my fingers together.

As Axel faced the road again and Reno sped through the city to Seventh Heaven, Roxas leaned in and whispered, "She's wearing the contacts today, right?"

"And the wig," I assured him with a nod. "And the bad-girl attitude."

He breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled and my heart fluttered as I felt his breath rest on my skin. "Good."

"Hey! No funny business in the back of my car, yo."

Roxas pulled away just as Reno pulled into a parking stall on the side of the road about a block from the bar. We all got out and made our way over to the line extending from the front entrance, searching for a bubbly girl who was probably bouncing on the balls of her feet in anticipation.

"Nam!" said girl—my cousin—called, waving her hand. "Over here!"

We parted ways with Reno then ("Gonna go find Rude and Vince," he said with a wave) and agreed to meet up at his car after the competition before joining Kairi in line. "How long have you been here?" I asked, hugging her and noticing how close to the entrance we stood.

"Since four," she shrugged, shifting on her heels and straightening her snug band t-shirt. "Sora wanted to come early to set up…" She trailed off, her eyes frozen on Axel's face. "Oh my…"

The redhead adjusted the collar of his sleeveless, slightly wrinkled button-down shirt. "What?"

"You _sure_ you don't want Imani to know about those?" She pointed a finger to his tattoos. "I think you could pull off a badass Prince Charming kind of stunt."

"I think so, too," I said, scanning the crowd in front of and behind us. "You're making heads turn, Axel."

He shrugged with one shoulder, arching an eyebrow at me and Kairi. "You sure _you're_ not the ones making heads turn?"

I blinked, looking down at my jeans and light hoodie. "I probably look like a twelve-year-old," I muttered.

"Oh please." Roxas rolled his eyes, bringing an arm to rest across my shoulders. "You're only saying that because Ax looks older than he really is with those tats."

The comfortable warm weight of his arm made me lean into the rest of his body. I ducked my head to hide my flushed face. "I suppose…"

The four of us stood in line for the next half an hour, chatting about random topics—movies, exams, Melodious Nocturne's song set, shampoo brands…To my hidden surprise, Roxas never removed his arm. Kairi seemed to notice, too, from the way she glanced at his hand hanging over the front of my left shoulder.

When we finally got into the bar, Roxas' arm slithered away as he and Axel made their way to the stage to say hi to Melodious Nocturne. Kairi's arm linked with mine and she dragged me to the counter behind which stood Tifa, Imani's busty cousin.

"Hey girls!" She smiled while shaking up a drink. "Can I get you two anything?"

"Nah, we just came to say hi," Kairi said, releasing me and hopping onto a stool. "How's business?"

"It's been picking up," she poured the drink into a glass and placed it before a girl sitting a few stools away from us, "and I'm positive we'll get more customers after tonight thanks to you, Namine."

I slid onto a stool next to Kairi, placing my hands in my lap. "I'm glad I could help," I smiled.

"By the way," Tifa's smile grew playful, "I didn't know Roxas had a possessive streak."

"Wh-What?" I sputtered, my cheeks flushing for the tenth time today. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh, don't play innocent. I saw the way he had his arm around you," the bartender laughed. "His eyes were darting around shooting daggers at a few seedy-looking customers."

"You should've seen him outside!" Kairi giggled. "He looked about ready to deck someone!"

Before I could protest, a loud "What the hell?" cut through the low buzz. The three of us turned to the voice. In the dim lighting I could see a beanie-clad head and a dark mop of hair reeling back from the tall guy they were looking at.

I clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle my laughter when I saw how Axel's grin gleamed and Roxas' smirk widened.

* * *

The crowd roared with applause and shouts of "These guys _rock_" and "They're so _hot_" and the like. Since their opening number (a cover of Bowling 4 Soup's "Punk Rock 101"), Melodious Nocturne was making a huge impression for being the rookie band debuting tonight. Kairi screamed her head off while I clapped and laughed in delight for the band.

"Thank you!" Demyx cried into the microphone as the other band members took quick sips of water. "Wow, you guys are awesome…"

"You want something to drink?" a waitress with goldenrod eyes and short strawberry blonde hair asked us, a platter of empty and half-empty glasses resting on her hand.

"A nonalcoholic rum and coke," Kairi told her with a grin.

"Very funny. One coke and…" she trailed off, her eyes darting to me expectantly.

"A Shirley Temple?" I offered.

"Are you asking me? It's _your_ drink," she said plainly.

My cousin and I exchanged an amused look and burst out laughing. "You're really getting into character, _Maxiin_," Kairi jeered lightheartedly.

"Yeah, yeah. It's the hair." She winked and strode off. "Be right back, _kids_."

"Our next song is a cover of one of our favorite bands and uh…heh…" I caught Demyx glancing at his other band mates before returning his attention to the crowd. "It's got a bit of a special meaning tonight. We'd like to dedicate this to a couple of good friends of ours…so yeah! Hope you enjoy!"

"A special meaning?" I wondered aloud. "What's that about?"

I barely noticed Kairi's lack of response before Riku began tabbing the first quiet notes. Cloud's guitar broke the calm soon after and Xaldin's drumming picked up the excitement in the room. Leon continued to stand off to one side, plucking his bass with more stoicism than the other members.

Demyx glued his lips to the mic and began, "_I think we have an emergency, I think we have an emergency…"_

_ "If you thought I'd leave, then you were wrong 'cause I won't stop holding on!"_ Sora echoed.

My eyes lit up and a grin spread on my face. Paramore!

_ "So are you listening?"_ Demyx locked his eyes with mine._ "So are you watching me?"_

_ "If you thought I'd leave, then you were wrong 'cause I won't stop holding on!"_

Slowly, my grin sank into a frown and my forehead creased in confusion. Kairi and I sat on a pair of barstools at least twenty feet away from the stage—we hadn't moved since coming into the bar—but if I squinted…

_ "This is an emergency, so are you listening?"_

I thought I saw Demyx's sea green eyes darken ominously. He no longer smiled charismatically at the fan girls pushing up against the front of the stage. He just _glared_…at _me_.

_ "And I can't pretend that I don't see this…"_

Sora didn't take his eyes off me, either. He usually looked for Kairi whenever the band rehearsed in Demyx's basement. Perhaps it was the dim lighting and he couldn't differentiate between us?

I was about to point this out to Kairi, but when I turned to look at her, I found she was already watching me, her blue eyes dimmed with what appeared to be concern. She jumped and whipped her head away the moment she realized I was looking straight at her.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

_ "It's really not your fault no one cares to talk about it, to talk about it…"_

Reddish-purple hair flew around her head as she shook it in denial. "N-Nope. Nothing."

_ "'Cause I've seen love die way too many times—" _

The moment all the instruments ceased playing, a sticky dread began to seep throughout my chest and into my stomach. Demyx's voice reverberated off the walls of the dark bar, his eyes boring into mine.

_ "—when it deserved to be alive…"_

I tore my eyes away and locked onto the waitress's yellow, catlike orbs as she stepped closer and placed our drinks on the counter for us. She held a blank stare—a fake one. Of course she knew something I didn't…something everyone else seemed to understand.

_ "I've see you cry way too many times—"_

My eyes flicked back to the stage. Riku's gaze made my heart drop to my sticky stomach.

_ "—when you deserve to be alive…"_

He maintained my stare for a second before glancing to some point to his left, off the stage.

_ "So you give up every chance you get just to feel new again!"_

I followed him and my lungs tightened. Arms crossed and smirking approvingly next to Axel stood the boy who'd haunted my thoughts for so long. It finally hit me when I saw Demyx and Sora's eyes flit to the same spot—right where Roxas stood.

_ "I think we have an emergency, I think we have an emergency…"_

I moaned and grabbed Kairi's shoulder with both hands, shaking her back and forth. "What possessed you to come up with _this?_"

"This wasn't my idea!"

"That doesn't matter! Are you guys _crazy?_"

"We all thought this might spark curiosity!" she insisted, holding her manicured hands up defensively. "This might start _the talk!_"

_ "And you do your best to show real love, but you don't know what love is!"_

"This is why Roxas wasn't allowed to listen in to their rehearsal last week?"

"Heh, you remember that?"

"Why couldn't you let me initiate _the talk_ on my own?" I nearly whined.

"When were you planning to do that?" she demanded, jerking out of my grasp and setting her hands on her hips. "Tell me when exactly you were going to come around and bring up the subject."

_ "So are you listening? So are you watching me?"_

"The subject was already brought up!"

"But you didn't get to completely discuss it. You know that, so tell me when you were going to mention it again."

My eyes roved all around the room—the stage, Roxas, Tifa behind the counter, Roxas, Axel, Roxas—as I tried to come up with a good answer. "I…I-I…well…"

A fine eyebrow arched. "That's what I thought."

_ "Well I can't pretend that I don't see this…"_

The breath in my lungs rushed out in an exhale of defeat. I glanced at the stage again to find the band members watching me knowingly.

_ "It's really not your fault no one cares to talk about it, to talk about it…"_

"Look, if you feel too uncomfortable when he brings the subject up, play dumb," Kairi advised matter-of-factly. "We didn't mean to put the spotlight on you two. We just wanted to try and give you a push in the right direction."

_ "'Cause I've seen love die way too many times—"_

Before I could reply, we spotted Maxiin jogging towards us as quickly as she could in the pair of one-size-too-big combat boots she borrowed from her cousin, her eyes wide and her brow furrowed. Her gruff, snappish tone was gone without a trace when she squeaked, "When the heck did Axel get _tattoos_ on his _face?_"

"You noticed?" Kairi quickly turned to her and smiled brightly. "Sexy, huh?"

I deflated on my stool, my shoulders sagging and the dread in my chest sinking into my bones. What was I supposed to do when Roxas brought this up?

"Axel never once mentioned getting any tattoos!"

"Oh? Imagine that."

Maxiin wilted, the tray under her arm almost falling from her grip. "Nam, did you know…Hey, Namine?"

I snapped to attention. "Y-Yes?"

"Are you…" she began to ask, her eyes searching me. Suddenly, she gave a sidelong glare to my cousin. "Kairi."

"I know!" she automatically cried, guilt etched in every feature. One arm wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me into a hug. "I'm sorry, Nam," she cooed. "I didn't mean to make you feel pressured."

"I know," I mumbled reluctantly, leaning into the embrace. I tuned out the rest of her apology and allowed my eyes to magnetically roam to where Roxas stood…and lock with his steady gaze.

Heat splashed my face and my palms began to sweat. He neither smiled happily nor frowned in confusion. He just stared, a strange shadow in his eyes.

But then, his mouth curved into a smile; a beautiful, innocent, oblivious smile, the shadow long gone. I forced myself to smile innocently, painfully obliviously, as Demyx's voice lulled the room against the drum beat and the blending sounds.

_ "Scars, they will not fade away…"

* * *

_

**Author's Afterthought: **It's very rare that music inspires me to write something (which, I think, is weird). When I heard this song play on my iPod a few months ago, I instantly thought of Roxas and Namine in this story and thought, "What if Melodious Nocturne performed this?" Thus, the Melodious-Nocturne-playing-at-Battle-of-the-Bands concept was born. What'd you think?

I don't mean for Kairi to be really, really annoying. Sometimes she just turns out a bit...strong-willed? If you've read _Memoirs of the Emotionally Stupid,_ would you say she's less stubborn in this fanfic? I intended for her to be more likeable...

And...it was easy to understand that Maxiin is Imani, right?

So let me know how you would like me to upload the final chapters. Leave a review, please! Thanks for reading!


	15. The Close Examination

**Author's Comments:** Thank you for all your reviews and your input on how you'd like me to update this story. Some of you were like "UPLOAD THEM ALL NOOOOOoooooOOOOOOWWW!" while another bunch of you were like "Take your time! I DON'T WANT IT TO BE OVER SO QUICKLY...but don't make me wait _too_ long!"

Soooo...I've decided to upload _two chapters_ today and to upload the remaining three by Wednesday (at the same time). Is that an okay solution? I really, really love reading each and every review you leave and I'd love it if you could give me your thoughts on each chapter I upload. I don't want to make you wait but I also don't want to rush things for you.

Let me know what you think! Thanks so much for waiting and for reviewing! All my love goes out to you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me and for supporting this story!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

He didn't bring it up, to my surprise. He hardly talked about the competition. Words could not describe how relieved I felt and how desperately I hoped he would never, ever bring up the subject (though the memory still played itself over and over in my head…along with the painting episode). We just spent the rest of the weekend studying.

My lips twisted into a grimace. _Studying._

I glanced up from my doodle to see Riku and Axel slump into their seats. The three of us looked at each other for several moments.

On an unheard cue, we all breathed in deeply…and gave a long-suffering collective groan, our shoulders drooping low.

"What do you have?" Riku asked me.

"Algebra and World History today," I moaned. "English and Earth Sciences tomorrow. French the day after. You?"

He counted off with his fingers. "Earth Sciences and Alg, then World History, Spanish, and English." Turning to Axel, he arched an eyebrow in silent question.

"English and Spanish," he sighed. "Tomorrow's World History, Alg, and Earth Sciences."

Riku and I let out an "ah" before the three of us lapsed into doom-filled silence. The next four hours would be filled with response-writing and fill-in-the-bubble-ing and pencil-scribbling and frustrated moaning and hair-yanking and—

"So," I sliced through my depressing train of thought, turning to Riku, "feel like a rock star?"

The silver-haired boy hesitated. "It's still sinking in," he admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Has anyone been mobbed by fangirls yet?"

"Not yet."

Axel was staring off into space, most likely dwelling on his impending exam headaches…or Imani.

I glanced at Riku and he grinned.

"Hmm…Too bad Imani couldn't make it," I fake-sighed. "She would've had so much fun screaming her head off for Demyx when the guy announced Melodious Nocturne had won."

"I know, right?" Riku said, a knowing glint in his jade eyes. He snapped his fingers and exclaimed, "_Darn_ that super last-minute fancy family dinner!"

Axel, seeming to have aligned his senses with our conversation at the mention of Imani, grumbled incoherently about stupid coupon expiration dates for a moment before his eyebrows inched together slightly and his eyes lit up. "You know," he dragged out, muttering to himself, "I thought I saw someone who looked like Imani that night…"

My heart skipped a beat and Riku's almost let his jaw hang open. "Really?" he asked, taking care in hiding his shock. "I don't remember seeing anyone like that."

"Me neither," I chimed in.

"You were either on stage or backstage the entire time and you were probably too busy ogling Roxas from afar," Axel waved a hand to Riku and me respectively and shook his head, "but there was this waitress with short blonde hair—"

"I wasn't ogling!" I cried while my hands magnetically slapped my cheeks to cover the blush.

"Whoa, whoa," Riku quickly interrupted, plastering a smile on his face while my heart skipped a few more beats. "You're not colorblind, are you? You know Imani's got dark hair, right?"

Axel huffed. "Of _course_ I do—"

"And weren't there _two _waitresses with short blonde hair?"

"I know that. I'm talking about the shorter one—the one without the antenna bangs," he snapped impatiently, raking his fingers through his wild hair. "Her _face_…She looked like she could be Imani's long-lost punk twin or something."

"I think you were seeing things." Riku rolled his eyes. "You were probably thinking about Imani so much that you started hallucinating."

"I'm dead serious. That waitress looked exactly like Imani, aside from her eyes." He eyed me questioningly. "You had to have seen her if you're gonna claim you weren't drooling over Roxas."

After huffing at his accusation, I glued my eyes to the ceiling to fake thoughtfulness. "You know what? I think I might have seen who you're talking about. She was kinda scowling all the time, right?"

"Yeah!" A grin broke out on his face. "Her scowl reminded me of the way Imani looks at me after I ask her for folder paper."

I cursed mentally at accidentally pointing out the similarity. "How…interesting," I commented weakly.

Axel nodded as his smile sank into a frown. "She was kinda weird, too, though. You know how I didn't cover up these?" He pointed to each bandaged cheek and we nodded. "She was _staring_ at them like it was the first time she'd ever seen tattoos."

Riku winced (Axel's head was turned to me) before asking, "Really?"

"_And_ she wouldn't wait on Roxas and me after she got our drinks! She covered the _entire_ bar _except_ the area we were standing in." He threw up his hands and gaped at us. "Weird, huh? It was like my tattoos scared her off or something."

"Well not many people decide to get their _faces_ tattooed," I swiftly argued. "Maybe she was just startled."

"But she works at a _bar_," Axel countered. "_Imani's_ _cousin's_ bar. She's had to have seen weirder things…" he trailed off, the creases in his forehead deepening and his eyes darkening. "Wait a minute…"

My gut twisted and my heart stopped. "What?"

"Imani's cousin's bar." He began to erupt with giggles and his lips formed a maniacal smile. "_Imani's_ cousin's bar! Of course!"

I shot a glance at Riku. His eyes practically shouted "RED ALERT, RED ALERT" before he prompted, "So?"

Axel giggled a little more before sharing his thoughts: "Imani and her cousin are close, right? I'll just ask her who that girl was."

_Your turn_, Riku told me with his barely-hidden panic-filled glance.

A hot potato game, huh? I resisted the urge to moan in despair and spat out, "Ask who?"

"Imani." Axel sniffed and shrugged his shoulders. "Duh. I've never met her cousin. If I just walked up to her and asked, she'd think I was trying to stalk her."

_There! The confusion tangents! Move in and distract!_ Riku's straightened posture cried. I blurted "If you walked up to who?" the same time Riku asked "Stalk who?"

"To Tifa" he explained to me and "Stalk the waitress, idiot" he growled to Riku. "Honestly. Do I have to spell everything out for you two?"

_Distraction implemented,_ I confirmed with a slight nod to Riku whose shoulders relaxed tremendously. _Now for the follow-up_.

"Well _excuse_ us for being a little out of it this morning," Riku huffed, rubbing his eyes as if he was still trying to wake up. "_Some_ of us were up late last night studying."

"I _dreamt_ that Romeo and Juliet were talking about sedimentary rocks and arguing over the name of a strange gas that was floating around them," I complained. "They were both wrong, too."

Axel blinked at me and started laughing all over again. "You're such a bookworm, Nam."

"I have to be! If I'm not, then I can't pass my classes!" I protested, relieved Axel caught the bait. "I wasn't born with incredibly accurate memory like you two."

"Us two?" He arched an eyebrow. "You mean me and Imani?"

_CRAP!_ I shrieked in my head, squeezing my hands together so my fingers wouldn't twiddle. _Distraction! Anyone but Imani! _

"No," I answered slowly, glancing at the silver-haired boy, "you and…Riku."

"_Riku?_" he repeated incredulously.

"Me?" Riku pointed to himself…and away from the waitress topic.

He gaped at the two of us for a split-second (during which we stared back with bated breath, awaiting his response) before rolling his eyes. "Puh-lease!" he scoffed, shooting a nasty look at him. "You didn't even remember seeing Imani's look-alike last Saturday!"

"It's the dreaded first day of exams!" Mr. Cogsworth announced upon his entrance.

As Axel turned to face the front, Riku and I couldn't keep the shock from our faces, our eyes widened and our jaws dropped as we wondered how the _hell_ Axel managed to reroute the conversation back to Imani.

* * *

_Just shows how much Imani occupies his head_, Roxas deadpanned to me with a glance, a shrug, and a chomp to his burger. _He can't stop talking about her…or _to_ her. What're you gonna do?_

"What do you mean you don't visit your cousin's bar?" Axel demanded across the table as he chewed a couple fries from my plate (he'd eaten all the ones on his own). "You two are close, aren't you?"

"That doesn't mean I'm obligated to visit her when she's working," Imani huffed, glaring holes at him…only her eyes weren't locked with his. Instead, they were darting between his bright acid green orbs and a pair of well-concealed bandages over the spots on his cheeks where she knew the tattoos lay.

_The question is,_ I said to Roxas telepathically as I sipped my water, _what is _she_ going to do?_

His raised eyebrows told me I had a good point.

Axel took a swig of his soda before leaning forward slightly. "You've at least been there once or twice, right?"

Imani shrugged in a way that asked, "What if I have?" while taking a bite of her turkey sandwich.

He leaned closer. "So you've met the staff?"

She shrugged again, seemingly unaware that he moved. Roxas and I glanced at each other again. _Here we go._

Axel's face hovered less than six inches from hers. "You know a girl with short blonde hair and yellow eyes?"

I held my breath, watching Imani across the table as she blinked at the question. If I squinted, I probably could have seen her mind juggling words to create an answer that would lead to Axel's satisfaction and still hide her secret.

"I think I do," she said. "You're talking about Maxiin, right?"

My eyes widened a millimeter. Roxas chomped his burger again, settling his chair in to watch the discussion unfurl.

"Is that her name?" His fine brushstroke eyebrows inched upwards. He let the name roll around on his tongue pensively. "Maxiin…"

"What about her?" Imani asked, quirking an eyebrow of her own. "If you're planning on doing anything to her like you do to me, then you'd better forget it."

He moved forward another inch. "If I'm planning on doing anything to her like I do to you?" he drawled. "Like what?"

"You want me to write a list?" she drawled herself, leaning on her forearms on the table and closing the distance between their faces by another half-inch.

"You keep track?"

"Kinda hard not to."

"So you don't want me doing those things to anyone else but you?"

Instantly her face flushed and she reeled back, almost tumbling backwards from her chair. "W-Wha…No!"

"You don't?" Axel questioned playfully, nearly off his own seat as he leaned towards her. "You want me to keep bugging only you?"

"I didn't say that."

"You secretly like the attention, huh?"

"_No._ That's _not_ what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

"I'm just telling you that she's got a temper. She won't take you lightly if you irritate her."

With a longsuffering sigh, Axel sat back into his chair, plucking a few more fries from my plate. "Fine. I'll take your word for it."

Imani stared at him cautiously like a wary alley cat that had been offered a piece of meat from a stranger. I couldn't help feeling Axel had yet to shock us. Roxas appeared a little bored with the conversation.

Then, the bomb dropped. "I'll try to hold back the next time I see her."

My eyes grew to the size of tennis balls and Roxas pursed his lips together to keep from smiling and snickering.

"Th…The _next_ time you see her?" Imani sputtered.

Axel blinked. "What? Is there a problem with going back just to hang out?"

"N…No…gah. Fine. Whatever. Don't say I didn't warn you about her, though," she reluctantly answered, biting into her sandwich and chewing stubbornly.

I stifled a giggle. Her bottom lip had been painted with a bit of mayonnaise. Everyone but Imani seemed to realize this. Most of all Axel.

"Silly," he smirked, reaching a long arm over to swipe her bottom lip long and slow with his thumb, sending her into a state of shock. He brought back his thumb and licked the mayo away, chuckling, "You're cute when you're jealous."

Imani's face burst into shades of deep red. She couldn't find a retort or the mind to even grumble under her breath. She just stared at him wide-eyed.

My own face had heated up slightly at the exchange. I'd imagined Roxas saying those words to me and swiping my lip with his thumb, the skin calloused from holding a Struggle bat and his eyes soft and his smirk devilish yet loving—

"Nine point six."

Roxas' voice jerked me from my daydream and thrust me into confusion. Axel and I glanced at him, eyebrows quirked. "Wha?" Axel so eloquently asked, his jaw dropping slightly.

"You've been reading Demyx's _shoujo manga_, haven't you?" He had a devilish gleam in his deep blue eyes.

Axel peeked at Imani, stifling a sigh of relief to see she was still in her dazed state. "What makes you say that, Roxy?" he said carefully.

"If I were to judge how close that measured up to a _shoujo manga_-like situation," he explained, ignoring the nickname for once, "I'd give it a nine point six."

"Oh really?" The flames of a challenge began to rise in his green eyes. "Think you can pull off a ten?"

He didn't answer, choosing to dart his gaze to me—my mouth, specifically, which made me blush harder. I had no idea what he was planning, but my stomach churned all the same.

"You can be such a messy eater, Nam," he chuckled, rising from his seat high enough to lean over the table and draw closer to me. "You've got crumbs all over your lips."

I didn't find the sense to question his observation. I could only stare, praying my heart wouldn't burst from my chest or tear down the middle in two. His warm breath made my skin tingle and he stared at me with half-lidded eyes and a smug smirk, nearing ever so slowly…

For a moment, my paralyzed state broke. His eyes…I thought I saw a flicker of _hesitation_ there…

Before I could dwell on it further, he closed the distance completely, melding his lips over mine. Gently pulling and pushing, he kissed with an intensity I'd never experienced before…an intensity that threw my heart into frenzy and made my head feel like it was spinning in a hurricane.

Then, his tongue.

On instinct, I pulled away with a gasp when I felt something wet swipe my bottom lip. His breath splayed over my mouth in slight pants. When I collected my senses, I opened my eyes to lock with his clouded ones. I couldn't tell what was clouding his eyes neither could I determine whether there really was pink dusting his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. It must have been the lighting of the place.

All I could think was, _He's never used his tongue before…He's _never_ used his tongue before…_

"Oh no you _didn't!_"

The cry startled us both. We broke our stares to look to the source of the outburst. Axel held one side of his head with a hand, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide and alit with stunned glee. Imani, who'd seemed to snap out of her shock, now stared at us with equally wide eyes, her orbs racing between me and Roxas.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Roxas slowly sit back down, straightening his shirt and snatching his drink. "Ten," he said, shoving the straw into his mouth and slurping the rest of his soda.

As I was about to look at Roxas questioningly, I noticed Imani and Axel look to each other. Imani's brow arched slightly. Axel raked the hand holding his head through his hair, his head bowing as he did so.

Then, Imani _smiled_. She smiled that smile that made the corners of her eyes crinkle. At _Axel_. Or maybe _with_ Axel? My head still felt woozy.

Before I could blink to check if I was seeing the exchange correctly, Axel turned to flag down the waiter and Imani asked, "Anyone up to beating Clarabelle's ice cream sink challenge?"

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **A couple of firsts, no? This is the first time we actually witness Imani and Axel interact in person. The thumb-swiping thing was actually kind of taken from _Memoirs of the Emotionally Stupid_, but hey, it worked here, didn't it? Because of that, Roxas used his _tongue._

Namine seems like the type of girl to study French, right? I thought Riku and Axel speaking Spanish would be mucho, mucho bueno. (I don't take Spanish so I don't know if I said that correctly.)

Okay, please leave a review before you check out the next chapter! Thanks for reading!


	16. The Torn Walls

**Author's Comments: **Here's the second chapter for today. You left a review for the last one, didn't you? I really hope you did.

Warning: MAJOR AXEL/IMANI in this one. I'm sorry. Really, really sorry. I wish I could give you more Roxas/Namine in this one, but this is how it came out. I totally understand if you're disappointed or mad. Feel free to rant at me in a review.

But I hope you still read. Please read! Please!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any Final Fantasy VII characters mentioned. I own Imani and Aden.

* * *

"Beach! Beach! Beach! Whooo! Beach!"

Squall "It's _Leon_, dammit" Leonhart shot a glare through the rearview mirror at Sora. "Shut up or else I'm kicking you out," he growled.

"You can't do that without getting in trouble with Mom," Sora retorted, sticking out his tongue playfully at the usually silent bass player. "You already made me pay for half that last tank of gas, too."

"What did you expect? I'm playing chauffeur with her banged-up minivan."

"I'm your brother!"

Leon didn't bother justifying Sora with a response, leaving the spiky-haired brunet to sink further into his seat with his arms crossed and his lips in a pout. Kairi giggled, interlacing her fingers with his to comfort him (which did wonders to his mood in a matter of seconds). I sighed in content, gazing around the van at the other passengers: Imani curled up in her seat up front next to Leon, Kairi and Sora next to me in the middle seat, and Hayner, Pence, and Olette talking amongst themselves and lathering on sunscreen in the back.

Roxas had opted to catch a ride with Axel, Demyx, Riku, and Cloud in Reno's car. (How they were planning to fit six guys into a five-passenger camaro was beyond me. Reno and Axel were both pretty skinny, though.) I was trying not to think too much of it. It wasn't like the two of us absolutely _had_ to spend every waking minute in each others' presence. So what if school was finished for the summer? We still appreciated having our own spaces.

I missed him, though, even if I was going to meet up and hang out with him at the beach in less than half an hour.

"Tifa's at the beach already," Imani announced quietly, her fingers plugging a response into her phone. "She says to look for the white tent when we get there."

"What about Tidus and the rest?" Hayner called from behind me.

"Tifa said they're helping to set up now."

Today, we were going to celebrate the end of a school year, Melodious Nocturne's victory at the Battle of the Bands competition, and Seventh Heaven's sudden boost in sales. Imani said Tifa planned to talk to Leon or Demyx today about securing a permanent gig at her bar. Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie, our friends from Destiny High School who we'd met during summer camp a few years back (the same one Roxas and I had met Axel at) would be there, too. The entire day would be devoted to splashing, eating, playing, and napping…or so I tried to convince myself.

Slim fingers crept between mine. I glanced up to Kairi's imploring, somewhat worried eyes. _You okay?_

I nodded. _I'm fine. Thanks._

Despite the smile she put on, she squeezed my hand encouragingly. _I'm here if you want to talk._

I nodded again. _I know._

"Zack wants to challenge you to a blitzball match," Imani informed Leon disinterestedly. "Two-on-two-on-two with two balls instead of one and losers have to grill the food. And he says hi to everyone."

"Hi, Zack!" we all shouted happily despite knowing Zack had no chance of hearing us.

Leon rolled his stormy gray eyes. "Fine, but only if Cloud's on my team."

She began typing into her phone again. "Duly noted."

Suddenly the three behind me began whooping. "Can you turn up the volume?" Pence asked. "This song is awesome!"

"And let my ears suffer from everyone's singing?" Leon deadpanned. "I don't think so."

"You sing along, too," Sora taunted, unbuckling his seatbelt to reach up front and turn the dial. "I've seen you sing Lady Gaga when you think I'm not listening."

Before Leon could answer (if he was going to), Imani read off her latest message from Zack. "Cloud's off-limits since he's on his own team. Zack's called dibs on Xigbar and Cloud's teaming up with Meg's boyfriend Hercules."

"Hn" was all he said.

"Oh-kay. Team Leon and Xaldin, then." Imani shrugged, typing in her message and hitting the "send" button.

The rest of the ride was spent singing along to Sora's plugged in mp3 and gazing out the windows and texting Zack and Tifa…and thinking about Roxas, but that was just me.

Six half-yelled, half-sung songs and eight threats of getting kicked out of the van later, we arrived at the beach. The moment Leon cut off the engine, seatbelts went flying and the sliding door nearly fell off from the sheer force Sora used to open it. Everyone (save Leon and Imani) burst from the car, dashing to the trunk to grab coolers and folding chairs and towels and whatever else we'd managed to stuff in before tearing off towards the white tent.

"Finally!" Riku huffed, standing up from his beach towel and taking off his t-shirt. "I'll race you, Sora!"

"You're on!" Sora dropped everything he was carrying and tore off his own shirt to sprint after Riku. They were followed closely by Hayner and Pence and soon Tidus and Wakka jumped in.

Everyone bustled around and in the tent. Zack started gathering up the more reluctant players for their blitzball match. Tifa and her female coworkers (Meg and Larxene, I think) were organizing the food and shooing Reno away for snacking early. Imani and Demyx (and Axel) crouched around an mp3 speaker player, fiddling with the settings and looking for a good song to play. Selphie, Kairi, and Olette were tanning a ways outside the tent.

Where was Roxas?

A pair of lips settled lightly on mine for a moment. "Hey," Roxas said with a small smile when he pulled back.

"Hey yourself," I said, smiling back as my heart landed from its leap. "You survived the drive."

"Barely," he sighed, plopping down on a beach mat and ruffling his hair. "My ears are ringing from the music Reno blasted."

"Would you rather have been forced to sing along with Sora and the rest during the trip?" I asked, taking a seat next to him while facing the beginning of the blitzball match.

"If it means having more elbow room, then I'll bust out a Gullwings solo, complete with hand motions." He shifted in his spot to face the ocean as well, propping his arms on his knees.

"Maybe Imani will switch with you for the ride back home," I mused.

He snorted. "Not likely, especially since she'll get a good look at—"

"What the hell is _that?_"

Roxas merely shook his head as I turned to the shout. My eyes widened when I saw the dark flaming half-heart, half-spearhead tattoo peeking out partially from Axel's boardshorts on his right hip. My ponytail whipped me in the face as I turned over my shoulder quickly to gape at Roxas. _He didn't. He _didn't_._

_He did._ His eyebrows arched slightly.

"That," Reno pointed at the tattoo proudly, his mouth full of potato chips, "is what I call 'Sigma of the Nobodies,' yo. Pretty sick, huh?"

Imani, the person who had shouted, looked utterly dumbfounded with her open mouth and her furrowed brow. She just stared and stared at the ink standing out so profoundly against Axel's pale skin. "W…Wha…"

"Looks like the cat's outta the bag," Axel shrugged, peering over his shoulder amusedly at Imani.

"Y'know," Demyx started, moving to stand a few feet in front of Axel and forming a look-through box with his pointer fingers and thumbs, "from this angle, you look like you're ogling his ass, Imani."

That comment earned a light chuckle from Roxas and a crimson blush from Imani as she immediately tore her eyes away and clamped her mouth shut. "T-Thanks a lot, Demyx," she muttered, crossing her arms.

"Aw, are you embarrassed you got caught admiring my _sexy_ tattoo?" Axel cooed, turning around fully and placing his hands on his hips. He smirked down at her closed-off, hunched posture.

"I wasn't admiring it," she retorted, curling into herself as if she were trying to imitate a turtle.

"Of course you weren't." He leaned in, his face inches from hers, and spoke so softly I had to read his lips to determine what he was saying. "You were _fantasizing_ about it, weren't you?"

A loud smack erupted in the gentle murmurings as Imani slapped Axel clean across one of his tattooed cheeks. "You're unbelievable," she hissed, stomping away from the tent and off to the stalls down further on the beach.

I gasped. Reno let out a low whistle. Roxas groaned aloud behind me. Demyx hesitated between going after Imani and staying to make sure Axel was alright. Soon he raced reluctantly to catch up with Imani, urging Kairi, Olette, and Selphie to stay here and let him take care of her. Tifa, Meg, and Larxene began preparing an ice pack after their shock wore off.

Surprisingly, Axel merely straightened up and turned his head to watch Imani run off, a crooked grin on his stinging face. He thanked Tifa when she handed him the ice pack and walked past Reno in the opposite direction to the shallow rock wall cliff.

When Roxas stood up and began to follow Axel, I knew he noticed the almost invisible slouch in Axel's shoulders, too. "Wait," I said, taking hold of Roxas' arm before he could go any further.

He turned to look at me strangely. "What for?"

I wasn't sure myself. I just felt like I had to go after him. "Let me talk to him," I said. "Please?"

Roxas' brow furrowed, his blue eyes studying mine silently for a moment. He breathed a sigh, though, and offered a small smile. "Go for it."

I smiled back then hurried off to find Axel. The sand crept between my toes and the sunlight forced me to squint my eyes as I power-walked to the cliff.

I found the redhead sitting down and gazing at the crystalline ocean, his long legs dangling over the edge and the ice pack pressed to his sore cheek. As I neared him I slowed down and took a seat next to him. He didn't acknowledge my presence and the two of us sat in silence for minutes.

"You know what happened when I gave her the waffles I made on the last day of exams?" he suddenly asked. I could hear the grin on his face without looking towards him. "She took one bite—waffles, whipped cream, and strawberries…she took one bite, swallowed…and started bawling her eyes out."

I suppressed the urge to comment or even turn to watch him. I felt that if I moved or said anything, I'd break some sort of spell hanging over us in the air that caused Axel to actually speak without joking around.

He chuckled lightly. "I _freaked._ I kept asking her why she was crying, but all she could do was shake her head and stuff her face with waffles. I didn't know what else to do besides stand in the hallway next to her and glare at anyone who stared at her for too long. She settled down as she took the last few bites and then she looked at me, her eyes puffy and red."

I started picking at a crooked fingernail, subconsciously trying to even it out while listening to Axel's seemingly random story.

Axel brought the ice pack away from his face, the plastic bag rustling as he set it down to his side. "That moment, I saw her. I _saw_ her—the unconfident, confused, broken Imani. The Imani she'd been hiding from everyone, including _us_, her closest friends." I saw him turn to me from the corner of my eye. "Did you know she's got eight walls?"

I couldn't help reeling back and turning to stare at him strangely. It was hard to picture Imani being anything but confident, collected, and certain. I really wanted to say that, but instead I questioned, "Eight walls?"

A corner of his lips curved up softly. "She puts up eight walls when she's around strangers, seven when she's around distant acquaintances, six when she's with close acquaintances, five with friends she knows fairly well like Reno, four with friends like Roxas or Sora, three with friends like you and Kairi, two with Riku, and one with Demyx or her brother."

My breath caught in my lungs. While a part of me wasn't surprised to hear Imani didn't open herself up completely to me, a greater part was thoroughly stunned at the depth of attention Axel paid to her.

"When I looked at her after she stopped crying and finished eating, I saw what all those walls were hiding. For the first time since meeting her, I saw _her…_" He exhaled sharply, his bare chest falling and his head leaning back so he could stare at the cloudless sky, "and she was _beautiful_."

I felt my heart skip a beat and I wished Imani was sitting here instead of me. My nerves were on-end like a child sneaking around in his older sister's room and reading an excerpt of her diary. I shouldn't have been the one hearing these words…not from Axel.

"I want to see _her_ again, no matter what. I want to tear down those walls she puts up with everyone. I want to be the only one she bares herself completely to." He laughed to himself quietly. "I don't know how long that'll take, but hey, I've been doing this for over three years already. What difference will another ten or twenty make?"

Something warm began to sting behind my eyes. "Axel…"

His edgy green eyes darted to me and his smile sharpened into a smirk. "Just wanted to tell you that before you think about scolding me for taking things too far or for trying to justify Imani's actions so that I won't feel hurt. I know why she did this," he pointed to his swelling cheek, "and I don't blame her for it."

As a tear or two rolled down my cheek, I shook my head at him slowly, a watery smile growing on my face. "Imani's a lucky girl," I said, my voice wavering a little.

Axel brought his head back down, arching an eyebrow at me. "I wouldn't speak so soon if I were you. You don't realize what's going on with Roxas."

"Don't start that again, please." I shook my head with a little more vigor, sniffling and reaching up to wipe the wetness away.

"As your ally in our similar conquests of emotions, it's my job to be honest." He leaned forward slightly, not a glimmer of joking light in his green orbs. "And _honestly_, his eyes are opening."

Though the statement caught me off guard, I only shook my head, not bothering to answer aloud. _That doesn't mean he feels the same way I do._

He seemed to recognize this and let it go, standing up with one hand holding the bag of melted ice and the other hand extended to me. "C'mon. Let's head back before Reno eats everything."

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Ugh, the sap! The sap! I blame this chapter on the movie _Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!_, specifically the scene where Pete talks to Tad about Rosalie's six smiles. What do you think? Axel seems like the type to pay attention to the little details of everything, doesn't he? To me, that's part of the reason he can be so unpredictable.

Leave a review, please! Once again, I'm sorry that there's barely any Roxas/Namine in this one. I hope the heart-wrenching, aww-I-wanna-give-Axel-a-hug part was worth it. Thanks for reading!


	17. The Lucky One

**Author's Comments: **Sorry! I miscalculated the number of chapters I have left; I have a total of FOUR more chapters remaining instead of three. I'm going to upload two today and two tomorrow to keep with my Wednesday deadline.

Thank you so much for your reviews! I'm really glad you all enjoyed that last chapter. It was emotionally draining for me to write but it was SO worth it. Hope you enjoy this short chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any Final Fantasy VII characters mentioned. I own Imani.

* * *

We found that Tifa, Meg, and Larxene had convinced Roxas to act as the food guard against Reno when we returned to the tent. The strategy appeared to be working; Reno trudged away from the tent to the ocean where the blitzball game had just finished, massaging his head with a wince.

"Good thing I brought a bat with me today," Tifa said with a grin, ruffling Roxas' hair. "Nice form, Rox."

Roxas shrugged, twirling the bat in his hand. His eyes flicked over to Axel, a faint hint of worry hidden deep in the blue hues. "You okay, Axel?"

The redhead gave a thumb-up and a smirk. "Every rose has its thorn. I'm good." With that he crept over to where Zack stood, dumping the water from his melted ice pack onto his head and earning a howl from the man. We laughed as we watched Zack chase Axel across the beach.

"Is he really?"

I smiled. Roxas always was the skeptic. "He is," I assured him, giggling as Zack tackled Axel to the ground and the two wrestled. "He's accepted that love hurts and he's still determined to do anything for her."

"Is that what you two talked about?"

"Pretty much." I nodded, looking up at him from the corner of my eye.

Roxas nodded slowly, his eyes returning to the dog-pile the wrestle was becoming what with Reno, Xigbar, and Hercules joining the fun. He smiled the laughing redhead buried beneath all the guys. "Imani's a lucky girl."

"That's what I said."

"Yeah? What'd he say when you told him that?"

I hesitated, taking a moment to carefully form my words without giving too much away. "He told me I shouldn't be quick to say something like that."

He arched an eyebrow, tearing his eyes away from the dog-pile to look at me strangely. "What'd he mean by that?"

I allowed myself to drown in his eyes, taking in every detail of his confused pretty face. Axel meant I was lucky to be so close to Roxas. I was lucky to be the one he went to when he was troubled or when something really amazing happened to him. I was lucky to be his secret keeper and his first kiss. I was lucky to have fallen in love with him, even if he won't ever return those feelings.

I honestly agreed. I was lucky…but I wasn't the luckiest. No, that title belonged to the girl who would creep into his heart and turn his world upside-down, the one he'd fall in love with someday.

"Nam?"

My lips curled into a full smile—_the Megawatt?_ I mused to myself—before softly landing on his when I leaned up on my tip-toes and placed a hand on his smooth cheek. I couldn't tell him straight, but I tried my hardest to convey all my thoughts through that kiss. Part of me was terrified of pulling away to see his wide eyes possibly alit with realization, but I eventually stood back on my feet and broke the kiss.

When I opened my eyes, I smiled at him one last time before walking away. I didn't dare look back at his wide eyes. I didn't want to dwell on what he was thinking.

Breathing in shakily, I knelt next to Kairi, Olette, and Selphie. "You wanna go swimming?"

"Yeah!" They got up, putting away their magazines and mp3 players. "You coming too, Roxas?" Selphie asked.

"No way," I heard him grunt after a moment's pause.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Oh Roxas, there aren't any octopus here!"

"That's not it. I just don't feel like it."

"You never feel like it," Kairi huffed, her arms akimbo. Suddenly, her eyes lit up with mischief and she cupped a hand to her mouth, half-yelling, "What? You're NOT GOING SWIMMING, Roxas?"

Her yell caught the attention of the boys playing in the water. Like predators locking in on their prey, Sora, Riku, and the rest waded out towards us, smiling dangerously. "That can't be right, can it?" Sora asked innocently.

Roxas groaned, tightening his grip on his bat and waving it before him. "You'd better stay back! I've got a weapon!"

"We've got numbers," Riku retaliated easily. "There's no way you're getting out of it this time."

Roxas began backing up carefully, leading the group away from the tent so they wouldn't overturn tables accidentally. His golden hair appeared to glow as he stepped into the sunlight but the grimace on his face darkened his expression. "Guys…" he growled. "I'm warni—"

"CHARGE!" Sora shouted, leading the boys in a full-on stampede towards Roxas.

Immediately Roxas was overpowered. His bat was thrown off to the side and soon his t-shirt joined it. Each of his limbs was hoisted over the shoulders of the boys and he was carried—kicking and screaming—to the water like an unwilling prisoner being hoisted to the jail cell.

I laughed happily, chasing after Kairi and the girls to go join everyone in the ocean.

* * *

"I declare a watermelon-eating contest!" Sora cried, setting down the tub of sliced watermelon in the middle of our circle.

We all grimaced. None of us _ever_ beat Sora at any sort of eating contest.

"You guys are no fun," he grumbled.

"Hey Sora!" Zack called from the other side of the tent. "We'll challenge you!"

"Nice!" Snatching the tub and turning up his nose with a humph at us, he dashed away.

"Good luck trying to feed him when you two get married," Olette giggled to Kairi who blushed and laughed awkwardly.

"You two are going to the mid-summer formal together, right?" Selphie squealed. "Take me along when you go dress shopping!"

I stopped picking at the remaining scraps of food on my paper plate. I'd completely forgotten about the mid-summer formal. A glance Roxas' way told me he'd forgotten, too…along with the other guys in our circle, if their subtle dreadful looks amongst each other were anything to go on.

"So it'll be you and Sora," Selphie counted off, "Olette and Hayner, Namine and Roxas—"

I promptly began sliding my watermelon seeds across my plate again with my fork to keep my head ducked and hide my blush.

"—and…_maybe_ Imani and Axel?" she finished with a whisper.

I peered between Wakka and Riku at the girl sitting next to Demyx and Tifa. She had her back facing Axel who was stuffing his face with watermelon with the guys on the other side of the tent. Her smile appeared to be relaxed as she chatted and ate, but maybe she was putting up a wall or two.

"We'll see," Kairi murmured. "Riku, who're you going with?"

"Who said I was going?"

"Oh come on! You _had_ to have gotten dozens of calls from girls or _something._ The formal is next week already!"

My heart sank. Next week? Really?

"I'll go broke if I take a date with me…_if_ I really go at all."

"Why wouldn't you go? Me and Sora will be there and so will Roxas and Namine, right?" She looked to us inquisitively.

Ignoring the way my stomach churned, I looked at Roxas who looked at me. _Will we?_ I asked.

_I guess,_ his shrug said. _You wanna go?_

I shrugged. _Only if you wanna go._

"Right?" Kairi prompted.

"R-Right," I mumbled without looking away from Roxas.

"See? You should come, Riku! _With_ a date."

Riku rolled his eyes and stood from his seat, taking his plate to the trash bag before moving to watch the watermelon-eating contest. "Whatever."

The other guys joined him, uninterested in the fashion talk the girls engaged in. "Do you really want to go?" I asked Roxas quietly, resuming my seed-pushing.

"It's up to you," he said with a shrug.

"I don't want to go if you don't want to go."

"Why wouldn't I want to go if you want to go?"

"I…" My brow furrowed and my nose wrinkled as I tried to make sense of his question. "What?"

He chuckled melodiously, looking at me with a twinkle in his blue eyes. "Are we going or are we not going?" he asked.

"If you don't mind."

"I don't. We're going." He leaned in to seal it with a soft kiss before snatching my plate and getting up to throw the rubbish away. I watched as he made his way towards the watermelon-eating contest with a slight grin.

I sighed and shook my head to rid the heat from my face and calm my jumpy heart. We were going to go. That was that.

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **I know it's pretty short...Sorry. I was thinking about combining this chapter with either the chapter before or after this one, but then those chapters would be super super long.

TO **Random KH Fan Girl**: I don't know how else to respond to your awesome reviews! I just want to thank you for always leaving such sweet reviews. They put a huge smile on my face every time!

On a random note, I watched Zack Fair's death last night for the first time and I _cried._ I totally broke down when I heard "Why" by Ayaka play in the background. Zack has become one of my favorite characters ever.

Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a review before going on to read the next chapter!


	18. The Rare and the Inevitable

**Author's Comments: **Okay, here's today's second chapter-update. Please enjoy!**  
**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani and Aden.

* * *

It was rare of me to go anywhere without Roxas. It was even rarer still to go anywhere without _telling_ Roxas at all. Knowing this, I hesitated and weighed my options in my head before answering.

"Namine, I'm not asking you to go dive off a cliff or hijack a car," Imani's static-distorted voice patiently told me through the phone near my ear. "I'm only asking you to come to Tifa's bar for a little bit. There's…something I want to talk to you about."

That pause made the decision for me. "I'll be there as soon as I can," I said, grabbing my bag.

The bus ride into town felt odd. Roxas wasn't there to occupy the seat next to me or to talk about random topics with. Even the driver gave me funny looks when he saw me board and exit the bus. I didn't like the empty space next to me as I walked the couple blocks between the bus stop and Seventh Heaven.

I pushed open the door, glancing around for the short blonde I was supposed to be meeting with. A few midday customers sat scattered throughout the bar. Meg casually attended to each of them before noticing me. "Namine!" she exclaimed, walking to me with a tray of empty glasses balanced on one hand. "What're you doing here?"

"Ima—Maxiin wanted to see me," I said, shifting my bag on my shoulder.

She blinked. "Oh. Oh-kay, well…Grab a seat. I'll go find her."

I thanked her and stepped gingerly to the nearest table, collapsing into the seat and huddling against the table. Glasses clinked quietly from the counter where Xigbar wiped down bottles and restocked. I sometimes wondered if having only one eye made it harder for him to measure ingredients for drinks…

"Hey Nam." The chair across from me scraped against the floor as Maxiin sat down, placing her forearms on the table before her. "Thanks for coming."

"Sure," I said while slipping my bag off my shoulder and placing it in my lap. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

She took a deep, slow breath before murmuring, "Roxas."

My heart stopped and I blinked rapidly at her in shock, my jaw unhinging. Imani never, ever talked to me about Roxas. She never intervened in anyone else's business unless she felt it was absolutely necessary. She didn't talk to Kairi about Sora until she started mindlessly eating nothing but tubs and tubs of Red Vines out of anxiety that he might not have returned her feelings.

Was I really so screwed that Imani felt she had to talk to me personally about him?

"Yes and no."

I jumped. I knew I didn't speak my thoughts, but sometimes Imani's perception skills freaked me out.

She offered a crooked grin at my reaction. "Personally, I think you're dragging this secretive business longer than you need to, but you're not _screwed_."

"Then…" I trailed off, sighing inwardly at what looked like a possible rerun of a discussion with my cousin…but I couldn't tell, since _Imani_ was the one talking to me.

"I'm sure you've heard this a gazillion times from Kairi and Riku and maybe even Axel, but how much longer do you plan on keeping your feelings from him?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. "And before you say anything, I know. You're worried your confession could totally change the friendship you have with him now. I understand that."

I couldn't verbalize an answer. My eyes darted from hers to the table and my fingers fiddled with the strap of my bag.

"I'm in love with Axel."

A gasp left my mouth as I whipped my head up to stare back at her. "W-What?"

Deep pink dusted her cheekbones, but she didn't let her gaze waver away from mine. "Remember that day we ate lunch at Timeless River after our exams? That morning, Axel came up to me with a container of waffles, a plastic bag of strawberries, and a canister of whipped cream." She exhaled sharply, shaking her head in mild disbelief. "I don't know if he knew or not, but Aden used to make me the exact same thing for breakfast—waffles topped with whipped cream and strawberries. When I took my first bite…I broke down crying."

Déjà vu tugged at my brain. Axel mentioned this at the beach.

"I couldn't tell Axel why I was crying," Imani laughed. "If I could, I would've told him about how stressed out I'd been feeling with everything that was going on…but all I could do was _look_ at him…and when I did, my heart skipped a beat. I literally felt it _stop_."

A voice in the back of my head moaned in despair. Why did I always find myself listening in for the people who really, really needed to hear these things?

"There was this one time I told Aden that I wanted to marry a guy like him—someone who was mature and honest and who loved me unconditionally and who would be there for me no matter what. Someone I could be myself around. When I ate the waffles Axel made me and when I looked at him afterwards, I realized that Axel was more of an Aden to me than anyone else I'd known. You should've seen me; I was a complete mess by the time I finished eating…but I didn't care." Her smile grew soft. "And neither did Axel."

The redhead's words echoed in my head and I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from repeating them aloud: _I saw _her_…and she was _beautiful_._

Her smile began to fade and her brow furrowed. "From then on, I _noticed_ things. Remember when Axel talked to me about Maxiin? I felt something nag me in the stomach—_jealousy,_ probably—because he seemed interested in her. Just when I thought I had buried the nagging feeling deep enough so it—so _Axel_ wouldn't bother me, the _idiot _pulled that _stupid_ stunt and I froze."

I watched the memory play across the backs of my eyes and I couldn't keep down my smile. The halfhearted venom in Imani's voice only softened my heart and put a gushy feeling in my stomach.

"It finally hit me when we were at the beach: my heart was beating so fast and my face felt like it was on fire and I could hardly breathe…and it was all because of that _stupid _redhead who constantly got on my nerves. _He _caused all of that and it scared the crap out of me and I snapped when he whispered those words to me. I know he was joking, but the things he does to me…" She groaned, cradling her head with one hand. "He always finds ways to throw me off. I don't know what goes on in that head of his."

I blinked and swallowed, my smile slowly sinking into awe. Imani not knowing—or admitting to not knowing—something was _extremely_ rare. My fingers pinched my arm under the table in an attempt to make sure I wasn't dreaming, and I bit my tongue harder to keep myself from yelping in pain.

She let out a breathless laugh, her blonde wig swaying with a shake of her head. "If he ever finds out, I don't know what he'd do. We only argue when we're within five feet of each other. It's been like that since day one. I don't know if he even considers me his friend."

I thought better of correcting her despite how badly I wanted to blurt, "He _loves _you! How can you not know that?"

"But you and Roxas?" she said, smiling warmly at me. "You two are _different_. You two have something really, really special. I can't describe it, but it's just…so _rare_, this bond you have with him. You can tell each other anything without fear. I don't have that with Axel. I've only known him for three years. That's _nothing _compared to you and Roxas."

My shoulders sank slightly. She was right when she said I have something special with Roxas. It's so special that I can't risk losing it or I know I'd _die_.

"The truth is that neither of us can confess our feelings without risking something. That's expected," she leaned forward, her yellow contacts glowing in the dim light, "but don't let that scare you into hiding forever. Your bond with him extends much deeper than mine with Axel. You've got nothing to lose compared to me."

I frowned openly. Nothing to lose? Was Imani crazy?

She seemed to read my expression clearly and burst out laughing, throwing her head back and leaning away from the table slightly. "I know for a _fact_ that you've got nothing to lose," she said between laughs. "Don't think twice. Just _tell_ him."

Don't think twice? What happened to the cautious, careful Imani I knew?

Suddenly she stopped, her eyebrows inching together and her lips flipping into a thoughtful frown. "Actually…maybe that's the problem. Maybe _telling_ him is the problem."

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"You know…there's more than one way to reveal your feelings," she murmured. Her finger tapped her chin as the gears turned in her mind. "Why not _show_ him?"

I tilted my head. "Show him?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "You know. Like…in _The Little Mermaid_, for example."

My eyes instantly dropped to glance at the paint streak on my shoe.

"Ariel had to _show_ Prince Eric how she felt because she couldn't talk," Imani explained. "Her actions spoke volumes more of her love for him than any spoken sentence could express."

The conversation I had with Roxas flashed in my mind.

"The saying goes that actions speak louder than words," she went on. "You and Roxas probably communicate more through actions anyway."

Once again she had a point…There were the glances and the eyebrow-quirks…and the kisses, of course…but what about the stares?

"Heck, he could have been saying he loves you through those kisses you two shared constantly and none of us would've been the wiser!" Imani exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

"W-What?" I cried, jumping in my seat again and hitting my hands on the underside of the table as I reached up to hide my blush. "N-No way! He only started kissing me when he was curious about why Axel tried to kiss you!"

It was her turn to jump. "_That_ was how you two started kissing?"

Before I could answer, a new but terribly familiar voice interrupted. "Namine?"

I inched my eyes up to meet those of the speaker, flinching slightly when I saw blue. "R-Roxas?" I squeaked. "W-What are you doing here?"

A hand reached back to scratch his blond spiky head. "I'm meeting Axel here. He said he had something to talk to me about."

Imani cursed under her breath, leaping from her seat and scooting the chair in hurriedly. "That's my cue to get back to work," she sighed, patting down her wig to make sure it was in place. "If he asks, I'm not here—"

"Rox!"

Both Imani and I winced visibly as the lanky redhead sauntered over. "Oh, hey, Nam." He waved and grinned. "What're you doing here?"

"I-I was just…" I trailed off, doing my best to come up with a logical reason without dragging Imani into it. Roxas' right hand curled into a fist as he tried not to let his arm swing back and forth.

Axel seemed to let it go, though, when he spotted the blonde waitress scuffing the toe of her shoe against the floor awkwardly. "Well, hello there," he purred, stepping around Roxas to lean down and look her in the eye. "You're Maxiin, right?"

"Who's asking?" she grumbled, tilting her face away from his. I'm sure I saw a faint blush on her cheeks.

"The name's Axel," he said, moving to lock eyes with her again. "A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"

My lips quirked up into a smile. Roxas rolled his eyes but did nothing to suppress his smirk. Maxiin's blush darkened tremendously as she cleared her throat and began to back away from him. "W-Whatever. I've got work to do." With that she bolted for the backroom.

The three of us watched her leave, laughing quietly to ourselves. "She makes a pretty sexy waitress," Axel noted appreciatively. "The wig's a nice touch, but she could go without the contacts."

Roxas and I froze, glancing at each other with wide eyes. _Oh shit,_ Roxas' screamed.

Axel turned back to us, took one look, and reached out to ruffle our hair. "Come _on_, guys. I knew from the moment she saw these." He pointed a finger to his teardrop tattoos. "The first thing she does when she comes across something she doesn't know how to react to is stay as far away from it as possible until she can come up with a way to handle it."

We gaped at him.

"Plus, her legs are short and curvier towards her hips, even though she has skinny ankles. There isn't another girl in town with legs like hers. And her glare was a dead giveaway, too."

"You sure you're not just _obsessed_ with her?" Roxas deadpanned

He only grinned wider.

Roxas sighed, glancing down at me again. "So, uh, what are you going to do now since Maxiin left?"

I blinked from my shock, glancing around the bar uncertainly. "Uh…"

"I don't mean to be rude, Nam," Axel patted me on the head, "but do you mind giving Roxy and me some space? He and I need a guy talk."

"No problem," I said, standing up from my seat and beginning to walk to the counter after a short moment of hesitation. A chat with Xigbar or Meg sounded nice.

"I'll take the bus home with you after," Roxas called after me.

* * *

An hour after going off to talk with Xigbar at the counter found me and Roxas sitting at the back of the bus next to each other. Axel had decided to stay behind at the bar for a little bit. "I wanna see how much of me she can handle as _Maxiin_ before she breaks down," he snickered.

It was nice to have the space next to me filled with Roxas again, but from the moment I reunited with him after his "guy talk" with Axel, my stomach twisted uneasily. Roxas kept his fist clenched and his smile was _stiff_, even when I was joking about Axel's desire to ogle Imani while she worked.

Once the bus rounded the corner from Seventh Heaven, I swallowed down my nerves and asked as nonchalantly as I could, "So what did you two talk about?"

"Nothing."

My heart jumped at how quickly he uttered that word and the twisting in my stomach increased. I swallowed again, keeping my eyes trained on the passing city outside and doing my best to ignore the squeezing in my chest. "O-Oh."

The rest of the journey home was completely silent between us. I was sure we'd beaten some sort of personal record for the most time neither of us talked to each other while in each other's presence. With each passing moment, the tension in my body wound tighter and tighter. What did Roxas and Axel talk about?

I didn't push the subject. Perhaps he'd talk to me about it later. Yeah. We were best friends. We didn't hide anything from each other…sort of.

Finally we reached my front door. I smiled up at him (_The Megawatt_, I could hear Kairi name off in my head) and said, "I'll see you later."

His eyes flicked away for a split-second before he offered a stiff smile back. "Yeah."

Then, he turned around and began heading to his house up the street. He didn't look back.

I forced myself to twist the knob, push open the door, and shut it behind me before letting my smile fall and my eyes widen. He didn't kiss me goodbye. He didn't kiss me goodbye. _He didn't kiss me goodbye._

I forgot how to breathe properly as I stared at the painted wood of our front door. Something was terribly wrong…and I had a hunch I knew what it was.

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Imani's side of the story comes out. It doesn't compare to Axel's confession a few chapters back, but really, I don't think Imani really knows how to describe her feelings as well as Axel did, anyway; she just recently realized she _had _feelings, after all.

I know Roxas' strange behavior was sudden, too. I kind of meant for it to be sudden. Now Namine is left to wonder what happened or what Axel talked to Roxas about...CLIFFHANGER! (Nah, not really. You'll find out what happens tomorrow.)

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!


	19. The Fall and the Loss

**Author's Comments: **So. It's Wednesday. T_T

I'm going to say this again later, but thank you _so much_ for supporting this story. I've broken a personal record for reviews and views because of you. This story and the reception you've given it has exceeded all expectations I had. It's because of you that I do my best to write something worth reading and smiling (and even crying) over. Thank you, thank you, _thank you._

Enjoy this second-to-the-last chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani (even though she isn't mentioned in this chapter).**

* * *

**I woke up after only getting four hours of sleep, glanced at my phone sitting on my bedside table, and sighed. Immediately my head hit the pillow and I tried to burrow as deep as I could into it.

Today made the third day I hadn't seen or talked to Roxas at all. Not once had he stopped by my house to visit. Not once had he called my phone. With each passing moment I set a new record for the amount of time I hadn't said or done anything with Roxas. It was killing me.

Exhaling sharply, I bolted up from my pillow and swung my legs over the edge of my bed, running a hand through my tangled hair. I hadn't found the courage to visit or call first. The nightmarish goodbye three days ago in front of my house haunted me...but I knew I had to talk to him eventually. What kind of a best friend would I be if I didn't confront him about his strange behavior, even if I had a very good idea what the reason could be?

Well, I _knew_ what the reason was: Roxas realized my feelings for him through that kiss I gave him at the beach and he has no idea how to respond so he's distancing himself from me.

One of my hands fisted the covers hanging over my lap. The thought hurt, but I was absolutely certain it was the truth. I knew this would happen. I made everything awkward between us because I allowed my feelings to show. Didn't I tell Axel and Riku and Kairi and Imani this would happen? I knew I did. They were wrong. They were _so _wrong when they said I had nothing to lose by telling him.

An abrupt knock on my bedroom door made my heart jump and jerked me from my depressing thoughts. "Namine?" my mother softly called through the door. "Are you up?"

Wearily I made my way to the door and opened it to answer her question.

She smiled and reached out to pat down my unruly hair. "Honey, Roxas is downstairs."

For the second time my heart leapt. Instantly my stomach did flips and my knees buckled. "W-What?" I stuttered.

"Roxas is downstairs. He thought you might want to go shopping for a dress for the formal this Friday."

My jaw dropped. "R-Really?"

She ushered me into the hall towards the bathroom. "Don't make him wait. Get ready so you can use the whole day to shop. I'm heading to work now so I'll see you later tonight."

Dumbly I shut the bathroom door and stared at my shocked reflection in the mirror. Roxas was downstairs. Roxas thought I would want to shop for a dress. Roxas wasn't avoiding me.

I picked up my toothbrush, squeezed a dot of paste onto the bristles, and started scrubbing. The burst of mint on my tongue told me I wasn't dreaming so with more urgency I cleaned myself up and got dressed before heading downstairs.

Just as my mom said, Roxas was at our dining table eating cereal and staring off into space. Whether it was the three-day absence or no, when he glanced up to look at me, I felt my nerves sizzle and my heart hammer. His eyes never looked so blue before.

His mouth quickly quirked into a grin but he didn't get up to kiss me hello. "Hey."

"H-Hey," I murmured as my feet dragged me to the fridge for the milk while my arms reached to the top for a cereal box. "How've you been? I feel like I haven't seen you in a long time."

"Yeah, it's been a while, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah…"

Alarms sounded off in my head. Our conversations were reduced to one-worded responses with awkward silences tacked on. I poured the milk into my cereal bowl and thought and thought, but I couldn't remember a time when that had ever occurred before.

"So…" Roxas started. "I thought you might wanna look for something to wear for the formal on Friday."

I brought my bowl to the table and sat down next to him, swirling around the cereal before scooping some up. "Yeah, that'd be great. The sooner the better, right?" I glanced at him while chewing.

He glanced away for a split-second. "Yeah…so we could take the bus to the mall and just hang out there for the day, I guess."

"Sounds good." I nodded and averted my gaze to my cereal to stuff down my frown.

After we finished eating we headed out to the mall. Steadily the conversation progressed past awkward moments of silence and towards comfortable, almost normal best-friend discussion…but that was only after we left the first store we checked out.

"I heard Kairi's looking for a pink dress. Maybe she'll make Sora wear pink, too."

"I'm sure he won't mind. Leon says he's got a pink piglet stuffed animal at home."

I laughed as we entered the next store. "Aw, that's cute."

He smirked for a moment before eyeing me suspiciously. "You're not gonna make me wear pink, too, are you?"

"Just for you, I won't wear pink."

"Good."

We scan the racks of dresses in the boutique, commenting on the colors and the designs and the price tags. "Why did we come in here again?" Roxas asked after coming across another dress priced over a hundred munny.

"I don't know," I sighed. "Sometimes this place has really good sales."

"Not today, obviously." He scoffed under his breath. "Guess that's why this place is called Lady Luck."

"Let's try somewhere else."

After trying another store (Graceful Dahlia) and failing to find a dress, our stomachs rumbled and we decided to grab lunch at the food court. The unease that settled in my stomach this morning almost completely disappeared by the time we finished our sandwiches. We were laughing and talking as if we were still kissing.

"Neverland," Roxas read the sign unenthusiastically. "Sounds…promising."

"It's the only store we haven't tried yet," I insisted, grabbing his wrist and dragging him inside past the fake trees at the entrance. "If I don't find anything here, I'll just look with Kairi later."

In truth, Neverland was my favorite store—low prices and cute designs in the same place. I rarely came to the mall to shop here because of school, but nearly every time I've come I've bought something. It wasn't long before I found myself in a dressing room stall with four dresses to try on.

"Which one do you want to see first?" I asked Roxas who was sitting on the plush forest green sofa outside the stall.

"Doesn't matter."

I shrugged and shoved off my shirt and jeans and zipped up the first of the four: a cream-colored sleeveless dress with an outer layer of mesh. With a deep breath to calm my excited heart, I opened the door and slipped out.

Roxas' eyebrows shot up past his bangs. "Wow. Not bad," he commented, his eyes raking over the dress.

I hummed some sort of agreement hastily before darting back into the stall and shutting the door to hide my blush. I could've sworn I felt his stare as it moved.

Next was a black spaghetti-strap dress with a slightly ruffled skirt. I slipped out again and kept my gaze focused on my feet as he looked at me. The moment he said "This one isn't bad, either," I disappeared into the stall again to put on the next one, silently berating myself for feeling so exposed in front of him.

"Any preferences so far?" I asked.

"Nope. They're both nice."

The third dress I put on was a strapless olive taffeta dress with a large flower design on the front and bubble accents at the hem. Without glancing at myself in the mirror I stepped out and asked Roxas, "What about this one?"

My skin felt like it was on fire as he studied the dress. The unsteady drumbeat of my heart rang in my ears as I watched my toes squirm below me. Not a word came from his mouth for what seemed like minutes before I chanced a look his way.

His jaw hung open and his eyes stared, wide and blue and intense.

I could barely hear my voice over my heart as I timidly said his name. "R-Roxas?"

Roxas jerked as if breaking from a trance before blinking rapidly and clearing his throat. "T-This one," he stammered, his eyes roving everywhere but on me. "I think you should get this one."

"Really? I haven't tried on the last one yet."

"No you should just get this one." He jumped to his feet and speed-walked to the exit. "I'll wait for you outside," he called over his shoulder just as he left.

As I returned to my stall and changed my clothes, I felt my heart erratically skip a few beats. The way he rushed out of the dressing room didn't sit well with me.

I paid for the olive dress at the cashier and left with Roxas minutes later. Even as we got on the bus for the ride home, not once did he strike up conversation again. His eyes remained glued to the blurred passing city outside.

The plastic bag in my lap rustled as I tightened my clasped hands. "Is something wrong?" I managed to ask after mustering up every ounce of courage I could find.

He shook his head. "No."

We stepped off the bus and arrived at my house but still he wouldn't say a word to me other than "Bye" at my front door. "W-Wait," I called out before he started walking home. "You wanna hang out here for a bit?"

He froze in his tracks like a boy caught stealing from the cookie jar. "Uh…"

"Come in," I said, grabbing his wrist again and tugging him inside while ignoring the apprehension clenching around my lungs. "I think _Starseeker_ is going to be on soon."

The door slammed behind him loudly—ominously. I let go of him in front of the couch and snatched the remote to switch the TV on, dropping my bag and my dress on the floor before gluing my eyes to the screen and sitting on the couch. Roxas' arm swung momentarily before he sat down stiffly next to me.

No matter how hard I tried to immerse myself into the world of King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as they ventured between worlds in their search for the star stealer Pete, my skin prickled under the sheer discomfort radiating off of Roxas. My heart sank with each passing minute, dropping to the floor with a thud as the screen blacked out and the episode credits began rolling. The suffocating tension in the air became so heavy and suddenly I snapped underneath its weight.

"Something's wrong," I murmured.

He remained silent for a few seconds before carefully answering—carefully _lying_, "Nothing's wrong."

I shook my head sadly. How strange that I could feel my heart hurting even when it had fallen to the floor. "Why won't you tell me what's bothering you?"

"I said nothing's wrong."

"I don't believe you."

The edges in his voice sharpened dangerously. "Just drop it, okay, Nam?"

"I won't." I turned to look at him, my brow furrowed and my courage quickly fading. "Something's bothering you."

He huffed sharply and got to his feet with a roll of his eyes. "_Drop it_. There's nothing you can do to fix it."

As he began rounding the couch to the door, I leapt to my feet and rushed after him. "Can't I try?"

"I don't want you to try," he growled. "I'll see you later."

I didn't want him to leave like this. I didn't want him to be so uncomfortable around me. I didn't want him to feel troubled. I was _desperate._

I grabbed his shoulder, spun him around to face me, pushed up on my tip-toes and smashed my lips onto his.

He froze…then shoved me away harshly.

I stumbled nearly all the way to the back of the couch. My lips tingled and my heart ached as if Roxas had ripped it from my chest, wrung it out with his strong hands, thrown it to the ground, and stomped on it for a good measure before kicking it back to me.

Roxas glared wide-eyed at me, his chest huffing as he backed away from me towards the front door. He yanked it open and ran out without shutting it behind him and without looking back.

I sank to the ground, staring at the space where he stood as it blurred behind my tears. I had just lost my best friend for good.

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **Oh snap. What now?

I feel like something is missing from this chapter...like I could've added something to fill this chapter with more suspense and apprehension from Namine. Suggestions?

Please leave a review before moving on! Thanks for reading!


	20. The Closed Distances

**Author's Comments: **Dun-duh-dah! Here it is: the last chapter.

Waaaaaaaaaahhh... T_T

Nah, I'm actually more happy than sad that I can finally bring this turmoil to a conclusion that I hope you will enjoy. It's been a long time coming. Thank you so much for reading!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I own Imani.

* * *

My spoon dove into the tub of banana split ice cream while I kept my eyes glued to the TV screen. I made a mistake.

Yes, the kiss, but I wasn't supposed to be thinking about that. What I meant was my choice of movie for the night. Both my parents and Roxas' parents went out to dinner somewhere and I didn't know where Roxas could possibly be. He could've gone stag to the formal for all I knew.

I knew for sure he wouldn't be spending the night with me (my dress was hanging in my closet with the tag still attached) so I bought a tub (or two) of my favorite ice cream and popped in the absolute worst choice of movie I've ever made: _The Little Mermaid._

I groaned around my spoon as I saw Ariel sing to the unconscious Prince Eric after the storm wrecked his ship. That stupid mermaid's smiling face was _calling_ to me when I glanced at the cover of the DVD. I couldn't say no and even now I couldn't find the will to stop the movie and put in a different one.

A flickering light and a rumbling noise tore my attention away from the movie. I glanced down at my phone as it flashed and alerted me that Kairi was calling. Again.

With a sigh I grabbed the phone from the coffee table only to hide it under one of the cushions. She could wait. Ariel was singing about being part of Prince Eric's world.

I scooped another bite of ice cream into my mouth, rolling the cold sweetness around on my tongue. My phone vibrated under the cushion and through the couch seat. _Look at me!_ it seemed to beckon. _Look at me!_

When I realized my eyes strayed from the screen to the coffee table (undoubtedly on its way to the concealing cushion), I shook my head and darted my eyes back to Ariel. She was about to lose her voice—missing this part was like missing the entire movie.

I shifted away from my phone when I felt the vibrations shoot through my leg again. _Ignore it,_ I told myself sternly, shoving more ice cream into my mouth. _Ignore it. Ignore it…Igno—no, _ignore_ it. Ignore—_

I slammed the tub of ice cream onto the coffee table and my hand snuck under the cushion for the irritating phone as Ariel started combing her hair with a fork in front of Prince Eric. While I berated myself silently for giving in, I flipped the phone open and scanned over the messages Kairi left. To my surprise, most of them were picture messages.

Against my will my lips curled into a small smile as I saw Kairi smile, glare, and pout at me in different pictures (with and without Sora). She really did choose to wear pink…and Sora didn't seem to mind matching her. Her captions ranged from "Miss you!" to "Why won't you pick up?" to "You're _so_ missing out!"

I glanced up at the TV—Prince Eric was showing Ariel around town—before browsing through more of the messages she sent. According to Kairi, Axel and Imani didn't go together, but they were both still there to hang out with Riku (who came with a short-haired girl named Xion) while she and Sora and Hayner and Olette danced. The four of them snapped pictures with her phone and added messages like "It's not too late to join the fun!" (with a picture of Axel trying to light the corner of his napkin on fire while Imani berated him) and "There doesn't _have _to be a third-wheel" (with a picture of Roxas).

Wait. Roxas?

I studied the picture. He glared at the camera and his teeth were bared slightly as if he was in the middle of growling Axel's name. The top buttons of his olive collared shirt were undone and his hair looked more styled than usual.

My stomach churned and my heart thumped painfully. He always looked handsome without making any effort, but this…

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.**

I dropped my phone and whipped my head to the front door. Who…?

**KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—**

"C-Coming!" I jumped to my feet, raced to the door, peered through the spyhole…and saw blond spikes.

Instantly my heart kicked into gear harder than ever, hammering against my ribcage as my sweaty hands grasped the doorknob and twisted. On the other side stood a disheveled Roxas, his hands gripping his knees as he huffed and puffed to catch his breath. My jaw dropped. "R-Ro…"

He lifted his head slightly and his blue eyes locked with mine. "H…Hey…" he muttered breathlessly.

"Hey," I barely whispered back. "W…What are you doing here?"

Without glancing away and without any awkwardness like five days ago, he slowly straightened up. For some reason the volume from the TV blasted Sebastian's song in my ears. In the back of my mind I pictured the painting I did for my final project last week and the look Roxas gave me right before I dropped my paintbrush. I suddenly realized with a start how sharp and unfocused and intense and dazed his eyes appeared and how they seemed to grow bigger and bigger until I thought I was drowning in them—

_"Kiss the girl."_

Warm hands cupped my face and he closed the distance and he didn't just kiss me. He _kissed_ me. My heart soared and my skin exploded under his touch. He melded his lips with so much force I couldn't keep down a slight moan from erupting in my throat. I felt my knees buckle beneath me and my legs turn to mush.

He kissed and kissed and kissed again until finally pulling away so we could catch our breaths. "Tell me they're right," his voice rumbled between pants as he rested his forehead against mine.

My bruised lips slowly formed my question. "W…What?"

"Tell me Imani and Axel are right." I dared to think hope was what tinged his sweet voice. "Do you really love me as much as I love you?"

Heat flushed my cheeks and my eyes fluttered open to gaze at his in shock. "You love me?"

In awe I watched as red spread across his cheekbones and the bridge of his nose. He said urgently, "I was avoiding you and I pushed you away five days ago because I didn't know and I'm really sorry for all that but…am I the one? Is that why you couldn't promise to tell me at the tattoo parlor when we went with Axel?"

His fingers curled into my hair and I could feel them trembling. In the entire fifteen years we'd been friends, I'd never see him so vulnerable before. I'd never seen him on the verge of utter heartbreak…of brokenness.

"Please say yes," he begged, closing his blue eyes tightly as if praying for the impossible. "_Please_ say yes."

To think his heartbreak and brokenness and vulnerability was because of _me…_

Joy surged throughout my body like electricity. I felt like kissing him a thousand times—and now I could. I could kiss him because I love him and he would kiss me because he loves me. We weren't benefriends anymore.

Laughter bubbled from my chest as I snaked my arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. _I love you I love you I love you I _love_ you I love _you I love you.

Even after I pulled away I was laughing—and so was he. He picked me up, stepped further into the house, and kicked the door shut, all the while filling the room with his melodious laughter. "Thank God," he cried, smiling down at me. "How long have you…?"

I didn't bother trying to hide the blush. "Since before we started kissing. What about you?"

He shrugged. "I…don't really know. I think I realized it for sure that afternoon you painted our shoes. I looked at you and I just…" A sigh escaped his lips as he put me down. "I just _knew._"

My face felt like it was on the verge of tearing from the huge smile I had on. I took hold of his hand and led him to the couch. "Come join me. I can't eat all this ice cream by myself."

"Liar."

I laughed and let go of him to pick up my phone and the ice cream tub. "I don't have to share if I don't want to."

"I didn't say I wouldn't eat any," he protested, snatching the spoon and digging up a heaping mound of ice cream. He moaned in delight when the ice cream hit his tongue. "This is _way _better than that soft serve machine at the formal."

* * *

"Here's to the first successful Melodious Nocturne gig and to many more in the future!" Sora cried over the din of the bar, raising his glass of coke with a proud smile on his face.

We all shouted "cheers" and clinked glasses with each other as Sora sat back in his seat. "This _was_ a successful gig, right?" Demyx asked our end of the table. "You guys thought we did great, right?"

Imani rolled her eyes. "You always do great." She gently nudged Demyx's shoulder before getting up and squeezing out between chairs. "I'm gonna go say hi to Tifa really quick," she called over her shoulder. "Be right back."

Demyx, Roxas, Axel, and I watched her scurry off to the counter. I glanced at Roxas and smiled. "She was the one who told you?"

He nodded, sipping his strawberry lemonade. "Axel actually did, but Imani backed him up."

"What'd they say?"

"It was weird. One moment they were arguing about the candles, the next I hear Axel say, 'Namine's in love with Roxas.'"

As I blushed, Axel jumped in, "You should've seen how out of it he was. I had to bring him back somehow. Soon enough he was firing questions at me one after the other."

"And he wouldn't answer any of the questions," Roxas added with a glare at the redhead.

"I told him to talk to you about it and Imani did too," he shrugged and waved a hand at us, "and the rest is history, obviously."

"Aw, that's cute," Demyx cooed, throwing a few fries into his mouth.

My smile widened even as I ducked my head out of embarrassment.

"By the way, Axel, Imani's in love with you."

Roxas sputtered into his drink as I whipped my head up and clapped a hand to my mouth, darting my eyes between the cheery Demyx and the wide-eyed Axel. "First you suggest staging a _mugging_ and now you're revealing her feelings about Axel to him?" Roxas hissed. "What kind of a best friend are you?"

"What? I'm doing the same thing Axel and Imani did with you!" Demyx held his hands up defensively. "I'm doing them a favor!"

"She's in love with me?" Axel mumbled dazedly, his jaw hanging and his eyes blinking rapidly.

Demyx nodded fervently. "Yeah she's always liked you but she only realized it a little while ago and she's in freaking _love _with you but she thinks you might not even think of her as a friend."

He clamped his mouth shut and his green eyes darted to Imani as she returned to our table. "Looks like I'm gonna have to spell things out for her," he muttered, a sharp smirk cutting into his face.

I glanced at Roxas while lowering my hand to my lap. _Here we go._

His eyebrows flicked upwards quickly and smirked. _Here we go._

Axel scooted back on his chair noisily, blocking Imani's path to her seat next to Demyx. Immediately Imani's easygoing smile sank into a frown and she sighed exasperatedly at the devious look in his eyes. "Ex-cuse me," she drawled.

"What's the rush?" he asked lazily, arching an eyebrow at her. "Aren't you tired? You've been running through my mind all day."

Roxas snorted quietly. Demyx nearly burst out laughing. I fought down the smile threatening to burst onto my face.

Imani's jaw dropped and she reeled back. "W-What?"

He stretched his arms above his head and slapped his dark jean-clad thighs as his hands descended. I caught Imani's eyes flicking to his pale midriff—and possibly his tattoo—as Axel reached into his pocket for his cell phone. "Can I take a picture of you so I can show Santa exactly what I want for Christmas?" he asked, flipping his phone open and positioning it in front of Imani.

I had to squint but I could see the blush tinting her cheeks even in the dim lighting of the bar. She couldn't seem to find the words to snap at Roxas to stop snickering. She could only gape at Axel.

Axel frowned, lowering his phone and leaning across Imani's empty chair to meet Demyx halfway. "Coach, I gotta change my strategy."

"Yer not bein' straightforward enough, son," Demyx muttered gruffly, his usually smooth-as-honey voice now raspy and seasoned. He waved his hand wildly as he instructed, "Ya gotta give it to her straight. Give it to her straight."

"Give it to her straight," Axel repeated with mock-seriousness, nodding his head as he straightened in his own chair and breathed in deeply.

"Oh brother," Roxas sighed, settling into his seat and snaking an arm to rest across my shoulders.

One moment Imani stood shell-shocked next to Axel, the next she sat in his lap with her lips connected to his in an overly-steamy kiss. Kairi shrieked above all the catcalls and exclamations from Riku, Sora, and Demyx. I gasped and clapped both hands to my smiling mouth as Roxas threw his head back and laughed. Even Leon and Cloud and Xaldin smirked.

When Axel broke away from Imani, he locked eyes with her and his lips moved: "I L-O-V-E Y-O-U. Got it memorized?"

Kairi and I squealed. Imani blinked bleary-eyed at him…and turned as red as a tomato.

Axel smirked at her, planted another kiss on her parted lips, and glanced at Roxas. "So, Roxy, whaddya think? Was that a ten in your book?"

"Nine point nine for calling me 'Roxy.'"

Sora nearly knocked over his chair as he jumped to his feet and lifted his coke glass once again. "Here's to a super awesome summer! Cheers!"

Everyone lifted and clinked glasses. When Roxas and I clinked our drinks, I caught his bluer-than-blue eyes looking at me. "We're not spending more than three days without each other this summer," he declared quietly.

I leaned forward for a kiss. Actions spoke louder than words, after all.

* * *

**Author's Afterthought: **I DID IT! I PUT IT IN! "I L-O-V-E Y-O-U." I think Roxas should've given Axel ten; he's stingy for being called "Roxy."

Upon suggestion of a few reviewers, I had Riku go to the formal with Xion. I was going to make him go stag, but then some of you were like "Xion!" so she went. They went as friends, by the way. (I was originally going to include Xion as a possible love-interest to Roxas, but I felt bad about that idea since Namine was going through enough stress without her.) Maybe I'll write something about Riku and Xion next...

Thank you SO much for supporting this story! I went back and made a list of all the people who've reviewed and I broke yet another personal record! This story has accumulated the most views, the most reviews, and the most reviewers for any story I've written to date. Thank you so much to those who left reviews (**Random KH Fan Girl, Sovereign Beta, ventus87, Namine Memory Angel, The Silence Will Set Me Free, maxeyn, xxxChaoticHarmonyxxx, midnight-heart, LoveLife45, Loves Ironic Tragedy, supernatural94, authorgal282, JesusisLove, starshine47, startscribbling12, xxxPLURxxx, Fruity-Fruit-Cups, frozen-popsicles, UnVeRsEd, BlackButterfly9, WatchMeSmile, SunkenLove, Zemyx-AkuRoku, Miheart Sundae, Sato Tadashi, sleepfastdreamhard, jenyflo5483, Nah-Mih-Nay, WingedGirl4life, ladyknight75822, TwixTheKitty, HideYourFeathers, Procrastination Fairy, Namixas-Forever, MarMima, SorasKey, iVanillelay, Angie-ange, Invader Mizzy, Don't Call Me Short, Jennehfur, Homely, random, poohbearlover95, patzie24, Muffin-pyon, Vook, **and **Dirtberry**)! Thank you to those who've read through the entire story and have supported me silently. It's because of you readers that I do my best to write a story that lets you escape and smile (and cry, if that's what you're looking for). I couldn't have written this without your encouragement and support.

So...**Random KH Fan Girl** mentioned wanting to read other Roxas/Namine fanfics I've written...but I don't have any! This was my first one! I guess now I have motivation to try writing another one...Any suggestions? I'd love it if you could give me writing prompts of what you'd like to read from me—pairing, plot idea, random scene idea, etc. I can't seem to drown myself in my _Ranma 1/2_-_Rapunzel_ idea like I usually do with any _Kingdom Hearts_ idea I get.

I can't say this enough: _thank you._ I hope to hear more from all of you about future stories I write! All my love goes out to you for every minute of your free (or not-so-free) time you've spent to read my story. I really, really appreciate it!

Hah. New record broken: longest _Author's Afterthought_ written.

Please review! Thank you for reading!


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